Pure White Sillhouettes
by emmybear x3
Summary: When Kagome loses her purity and control of her body to the darkness of the Shikon Jewel residing within her, only Sesshomaru has the power to subdue and potentially save her. Meanwhile, Sango and Inuyasha desperately search for the missing miko while dealing with the aftermath of the final battle with Naraku. Character death, language, and deliciously lemony chapters. Sess/Kag
1. Setting the Stage

**I felt the need to set the stage for this wonderfully fun, lighthearted comedy. Just kidding.**

**This is the darkest most horrifyingly evil fanfiction I have ever written. While there is occasional fluff, for the majority of this story is fucked up to the max. But in a good way. Like, holy crap, that's fucked up, but I NEED THE NEXT CHAPTER NOOW. Or so i've been told. You have been warned.**

** My next chapters will be longer, hopefully with less of my all consuming descriptions. So without further adieu, welcome to my story, I hope you enjoy. (:  
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It was her alright, her scent confirmed it, but what his nose told him, his eyes and his aura did not accept.

Her black hair fell in long, lusterless waves down her back, and she was garbed in her usual attire of hardly anything. If possible, she looked thinner than she used to be, her tearstained face was far more angular and through her bloodstained white shirt, the outline of her protruding ribcage was visible. She was filthy. Scrapes covered her legs, and dirt covered the scrapes. Infection was already beginning to set in. The one pure soul the world had been offered as a guiding light had been smothered.

She looked like a corpse apart from the unsteady rise and fall of her chest where her shirt clung to deep scores on her stomach and breasts. There was too much blood for it to all be her own, and indeed, some of it still retained a demonic aura, but her ghostly pale skin and the dark circles under her eyes proved evidence enough that much of it was hers.

It was the reek of blood that brought him to her, but her eyes were what kept him there.

Gods, her eyes. He almost expected them to glow. Voids of endless black, bloodshot and filled with what can only be described as an all consuming hatred, a voracious black fire fed by pain and fury. For everything. For everyone. For life. The shine of her pure energy that hid behind the surface of her eyes like a whispered secret was dead. There was nothing left.

A glimmer of sadistic amusement flickered across his face, illustrated only by a slight twisting of his lips. He despised this repulsive human more than most, and he reveled in the continuation of this lovely little show he had been so lucky to chance upon. At the same time she unsettled him, and for that, he hated her all the more.

She sat slumped against a tree, staring into the distance. How easy it would be to kill her. How she deserves it, his half brothers whore. Disgusting. Her loyalty to him had obviously gotten her nowhere. It was no doubt what put her in the state she is now, and also what caused her to blatantly assault him so many times before this.

A low growl rumbled deep in his chest. Her mere existence was a kick in the face.

Somewhere in the recesses of his rational mind, he reminded himself that while this girl was the same in a physical sense, Inuyasha's wretch was very much already dead. This creature that lay before him had been stripped of all innocence, of all kindness, of all hope. Her aura reflected the internal burning sea of chaos ripping her apart, feeling much more demon than priestess.

Before he could even will his body into motion, the rapid dilating and focusing of her wide eyes caught his attention, sliding thickly in their sockets to lock on his face. An eerie grin spread across her face.

Chills snaked down his spine.

No, not demon.

This creature was a monster.


	2. Questions without Answers

**This is the fastest I will ever update. I'm sick, so I wrote all day instead of doing my homework like I should have been doing. :D And by the way, my lack of updates are not because I'm lazy, it's because I just write really slow. It sucks. I know. But I can't help it. I'm making chapters shorter to compensate. I hope you don't mind.**

**Uhm, oh yeah. Disclaimer, blah blah bullshit. Has anyone actually gotten sued for copyright material in a fanfiction? Yeah, I didn't think so.**

**Rate && Review!**

**~emmybear**

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"Sesshomaru-sama," her voice was poison, laced with a giddy form of cruelty that grated on his ears.

She stood, rolling her weight to one hip with exaggerated fluidity that made her look drunk. It was an act. Her legs were steady beneath her, one foot ahead of the other.

"What a coincidence that I meet you here." She hissed. "You know, I was just looking for someone to play with. With Naraku dead and all, I figured you'd be the next best thing."

He bristled and released a menacing growl. The girl was insane. She was just as fragile as she was before, just as human. Challenging him while wounded and alone was a death sentence. Without her spiritual powers, she was no more dangerous to him than a normal human.

"Aw, did I piss you off?" Her voice became a degrading whine used on children. She let out a harsh cackle.

"Do not flatter yourself, wretch. You hold no power over this Sesshomaru's emotion."

"It speaks! And here I thought you were just dumb and mute."

She hit the tree hard, his hand wrapped around her throat. One razor sharp claw glowing with acid remained poised over her carotid artery. If he pierced her skin, she'd be dead in minutes. To his utter bewilderment, she let out a wheezing laugh.

"No power, eh?" She taunted. He growled deep in his chest. She didn't even flinch.

"What's the matter?" She choked through the pressure he was putting on her throat. "Can't kill me?"

"Don't be a fool. Death would be a gift I do not intend to give." He snarled.

"Then why are you still here." Her disrespect knew no bounds.

"You will answer this Sesshomaru's questions."

"This Sesshomaru can kiss my ass." She whipped her knee up to catch him in the groin, but he was too fast. His grip changed on her neck as he used it to haul her over his head and slam her down on her back. The air knocked out of her, she heaved herself up into a sitting position, convulsing for a moment before dragging in a short labored gasp. A gasp that slowly rose into a shriek of laughter.

This disturbed him; truly, honestly disturbed him. The tang of blood was fresh in the air overwhelming his sense of smell. He had reopened her wounds.

"You try my patience, wretch."

She moved her body like she was a puppet with a palsy stricken puppeteer; constantly in sickly motion. Her head lolled to the side as she moved to stand again. She was wrong. Her existence was unnatural. But he would not be bested by this bitch. He brought the blunt side of Tokijin down hard on one of her shins, aiming for a massively infected cut and she collapsed, but did not cry out.

"Speak." He demanded. She shook on the ground before him holding her wounded leg. Her hair fell around her face, and she began to make an eerie broken noise. She swayed from side to side, her antics making him more and more uncomfortable, yet all he did was stand and watch, his stoic mask firmly in place.

She swayed towards him and caught herself with her hands. Her smirk rivaled his on the scale of creepy.

"I think," she giggled raising sinister eyes to meet his, "you're ready to play now, Sesshomaru-sama."

She lifted her hands, her smirk returning. He raised an eyebrow, feeling no impending surge of power. She had never been able to manifest her power in such a way before, why would she be able to now. She was obviously 'playing' with him, and he was not amused.

"Foolish hum…" The blast of energy caught him square in the chest and sent him reeling backwards. It felt like the filth of Naraku, but somehow different. He could tell this power was not hers, but neither was it that bloody hanyo. Tokijin pulsed madly in his hand, thrilled by the black power sizzling around them. It faded and then sparked out.

When the dust cleared, he noticed the immense power of the attack was divided and sent marginally to either side of him. He received only half the power the surrounding area had.

'That wench protected me.'

It was then he made himself a solemn vow. Once he got his answers, he would kill this bitch good and dead.

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"BECAUSE THEIR DEAD, INUYASHA. THAT'S WHY."

"YOU DON'T…" he winced and gripped the bandage on his chest, "…you don't know that."

Tears streamed down the demon slayer's face, but her shaking voice was hard and cold.

"Miroku had a hole in his chest as big as my fist. All that was left of Kikyo was her bow and arrows. What makes you think Kagome will be ANY different?"

"BECAUSE…" he roared, his voice breaking.

"Because what?" She spat back.

"Forget it." He sniffed stubbornly and almost looked himself again. Sango fought the urge to pull away, and instead shrugged off the hurt. They needed each other if they were going to survive this. She touched his hand and met his amber gaze.

"Please?" She cajoled. He glared at her for a moment, his eyes laden with pain before heaving a huge sigh that melted his guarded expression and left him looking exhausted and vulnerable.

"Because I need to believe in something." He whispered brokenly. Sango's expression softened.

"You have plenty to believe in." He let out a harsh bark of resentful laughter.

"Like what, Sango?" His voice was instantly scathing. "What the hell do I have left if Kagome is dead? NOTHING. I have NOTHING left for me. Kikyo's dead and I spent my LIFE trying to get the Shikon Jewel, and for the past god knows how long, it's been my purpose to put it back together. And now it just up and disappears? So you tell me, Sango, what is my purpose if I've lost Kagome and my only chance at acceptance. Tell me, WHERE the HELL do I belong now?"

Red patches blossomed on his bandages, and he swore loudly. Sango was stunned into silence, and unable to think of an answer, she watched the fire crackle merrily. Silence settled around them. Kirara nuzzled Sango in a comforting gesture, stumbling as she climbed onto her lap. One of her gorgeous, bushy tails had been cut off making her unbalanced and unable to fly straight, but she had refused to be left behind.

Sango sighed and rested back against a tree, petting her loving companion softly. They had left Kaede's weeks ago in search of their missing friend, but it rained the night Naraku died and they waited two full days to start looking beyond the well and the village. They buried their dead, and mourned, and when they were finished they reeked so badly of tears, death and soil, any trail that could have been was long gone or too faint to find over the fresh, incredibly overpowering ones. They were wandering aimlessly, hoping to chance upon something or someone that had seen her.

Sango knew the search was hopeless. Why would Kagome leave them all in the first place? The pieces just didn't add up. But this was giving the two comrades something to do rather than face reality, something that was becoming exceedingly hard to ignore.

Sango had been so absorbed in her musings, and Inuyasha had been silent so long his voice startled her when he finally spoke again.

"She's alive." He promised as if reading her mind. "I can feel her." Sango smiled bitterly after a moment.

"I sincerely hope you're right."

'I don't know what we'll do if you're not out there somewhere, Kagome-chan.' She silently added before curling around Kirara and falling into a fitful sleep.

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**Thank you for the reviews, guys! (:**


	3. Shadows

**I don't know if I'm happy with this chapter. I mean, I am but I'm not. I don't know. Anyway, I was sick again today, so another chapter. YAY!**

**Because I disturbed even myself with the Sessho/Kags part, I decided to throw a little fluff into the mix because it's cute and well, fluffy. Plus, I hardly ever write fluff, (hence "tragedy") so it was fun to experiment, even if it was short.**

**So, review and tell me what you think!**

**-emmybear**

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The smell of earth and campfire finally lulled him to sleep. It almost felt like the old days where he'd wake up every hour or so to check on his friends. He almost smiled and promised himself that when he woke, Kagome and Shippo would be nestled safely in her bag of sleep. Sango would be curled against Kirara on her side, holding her sword hidden and at the ready between herself and her demon cat's fur. Miroku would be staring at Sango's rear, and everything would be okay.

Right?

No, that wasn't true.

Inuyasha frowned in his sleep. Lying to himself was harder than doing it when Sango was awake to help him carry the weight of their denial.

The smell of salt brought him back to the little camp, and his amber eyes opened slowly.

Sango's body shook with uncontrolled sobs that she would have never allowed herself had she been awake. She let out a little mew that sounded like Miroku, and the weight in Inuyasha's heart suddenly became almost unbearable.

Fucking Naraku. This was his fault.

The hanyo rose and crossed around the fire to the fitfully sleeping demon slayer. She gripped her sword so tightly her knuckles were white. Kirara was struggling to escape her arms which just made her hold on tighter. Sango choked on a sob and began shaking silently. He sat down beside her and moved her arm so Kirara could slip out of her vice like grip. The little cat shook herself and began licking the tears off her friends face with a raspy tongue.

Sango smiled a little at the strange feeling of Kirara's little sandpaper tongue, but tears still flowed freely down her face.

Almost instinctively, Inuyasha brushed her wet hair from her face and gently wiped her tears away with the back of his hand. She reached up and grabbed his hand and gripped it tightly. Just when he thought he was caught, she took a deep, shaking breath. Her shoulders relaxed and she slowly quieted.

"Thank you." She whispered, still sound asleep.

Her breathing became less shaky and more relaxed, but she still kept a vice like hold on Inuyasha's limp hand.

Eventually, Kirara brushed past his hand and back into the now, much less lethal enclosure of Sango's arms. She mewed at Inuyasha before laying her head down and falling asleep herself.

He fought back his own tears and let out a huge sigh before settling down himself.

The last thing he did before letting sleep take him, was close his hand around Sango's and squeeze back.

'Sleep well.'

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He used the cloud of debris as cover. Using her laughter to pinpoint her location, he shifted his position to catch her unaware. He moved slowly, giving himself time to plan. In the darkness, her human eyes would see only black under the shelter of the trees. She'd be lucky if she could see her hand in front of her face. Still, he could feel her track him with her eyes. He moved erratically, to see if she was faking. But black pools followed his every step. With no miko powers she should not have been able to track his movements so accurately.

'So they are not dead, just hidden,' he mused, giving up the pointless game of cat and mouse. Instead, he retreated farther back into the shadows of the trees to escape the patter of the still falling dust.

A light breeze blew her scent towards him. How the hell was she still alive? All he could smell was her blood. It was overwhelming and inescapable, even with the smell of torn earth all around him; her stench was stuck to him. Human woman stench… stuck to him.

Unforgivable.

She shifted to face him, leaning back on her hands in a degradingly comfortable way and yawned.

"Sesshomaru-sama, come play with me! I'm getting bored." She called wickedly, staring blindly into the darkness, yet somehow, straight into his eyes.

"Hn." It was high time this girl learned her manners. She would not catch him unaware again.

His acid whip flicked out of the shadows, winding around her injured leg, and in the same fluid motion, and snatched her back to him. She lay before him almost entirely indecent, the ground having pulled up what little clothing she had. Her eyes bore into his with no shame.

"Pathetic." He spat, smelling the flesh burn as his acid began to corrode her skin. She simply sneered at him.

"You need new insults, dog." He ignored her.

"What is it that you want from this Sesshomaru?" She cocked her head jerkily.

"Are you slow? We're playing a game." Wrong answer.

His whip uncoiled from around her leg as he drew back and slashed a shallow incision filled with acid her from collar bone to hip.

He waited for the scream, but she did not give him the pleasure. His golden orbs grew dark with fury and he snarled viciously. She raised her arm and dragged her finger the length of the cut, then put it in her mouth. She smirked defiantly, and let her arm flop to her side.

Killing her would probably be the highlight of his long life.

He wasted no time, and was instantly standing over her with her hands pinned by his feet and Tokijin drawing blood at her throat. To his extreme delight, he felt a small shiver course through the small girl's skeletal frame.

He didn't know it was completely involuntary, and had nothing to do with fear.

"Insolent wretch… Why won't you die?" He hissed, even using his pissed off voice, not that there was much difference. She glanced around, like she was going to share a secret, and then looked back at him.

"Because I," she whispered, growing even more serious, "am a God." He examined her face. She held his gaze steadily, and then she began to smile; then giggle; then cackle. "And pigs can FLY. I never knew you were such a sucker! The Great Lord Sesshomaru…what a JOKE."

That was it.

He plunged Tokijin straight through her neck. The snap her spine made was so satisfying; he raised his face to the sky and howled, his eyes glowing a demonic red. His demon howled with him, thrilled to be given such freedom, when it had always been held in check. Her breathing instantly ceased, and then he heard her rapid heartbeat stutter to a halt.

Killed good and dead like he promised.

The euphoria slowly faded, as he realized he was in exactly the same place he started. He had no answers, and the dumb whore was dead.

"Well shit." He was really on a roll tonight. His beast snickered at his outburst. Sesshomaru's restraint was running thin, and when that happened, things died. He loved a good temper tantrum.

The two glanced down through glowing red eyes at the newly dead Kagome, and, as if the wretch hadn't been enough trouble, she was still glaring at him with eyes that didn't look dead. They still held the deep scathing, incredibly unsettling hatred that made it hard to look away.

Then they shifted, focused, locked on his face.

No, really. She was glaring at him. She was seeing, comprehending, watching him.

The dead girl was fucking glaring at him.

Tokijin began to burn like fire in his hand. It was absorbing her aura, her power. He stepped back and released his sword. He looked down at her just in time to catch the deadly, victorious smirk on her blue lips before his mutinous sword plunged through his shoulder, and his world went black.


	4. Dead Girls Dream

**SHORT CHAPTER. I'm sorry. I know, I meant to update weeks ago. Computer issues. But everyone says that so much no one gives a shit anymore. Does anyone actually read these? I kind of hope so. Send me a review if you read this. It will make me happy. Hope you like it.**

**Rate & Review, as always,**

**-Emmybaby**

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He had awoken to the dry itchy feeling of healing skin. Black stars danced before his eyes as he reached up and found Tokijin lodged securely in his chest. His memory flooded back to him and he whipped around to look at the girl. She hadn't moved. Cursing her silently, he grabbed the hilt of his sword and pulled roughly. He maintained his mask perfectly, but his hand clenched as the wound was reopened.

He let the sword drop to his side, and leaned back slowly against the nearest tree. It took all his effort to not simply collapse against it as blood poured down his shirt. He absently noted it was daylight, and the woman had knocked him unconscious for several hours, something he would never admit. Ever.

There was no trace of any other demons for a few hundred meters around them and very little had changed since the night before.

He took a deep breath, and allowed himself to relax. He sat a distance away from the immobile human, minding any changes in her aura, which had become less directly violent, and more of a drowning swirl of despair.

After a moment, his wound began to feel itchy again as the muscle and bone began to knead themselves together correctly now that the barrier of the sword was removed.

The woman's aura shifted violently, and the blank, almost peaceful expression on her face became a pained, confused wince. Her eyes began moving rapidly beneath her eyelids and he released a low warning growl. There was no response.

He thought back to Rin and how occasionally she thrashed around in her sleep, but had no memory of it the next morning when Jaken scolded her for it. He tested her again, snarling a little louder, but still eliciting no reaction. He decided to let the wretch be and observe.

Her face began flashing through emotions like a movie screen, projecting her hatred and her fear like a neon sign.

His anger having mostly dissipated he noted, unconscious, the bitch was rather interesting. When she came to he would probably kill her again, but for now he would get to know his enemy.

He remembered there was a word Rin used to describe the stories told during sleep. Hardly ever needing sleep himself, the human word eluded him. The darkness of demon unconsciousness differed greatly from the colorful worlds of human sleep. It hardly seemed restful, to be moving and twitching as such.

'These sleep stories are probably the reason humans spend so much wasted time unaware.' He mused.

The smell of salt brought his eyes to her face. A single tear trailed down her cheek, leaving a streak of white skin silhouetted by dirt and blood.

He absentmindedly wondered what had caused the extreme mood swing. Now she seemed almost calm.

The word finally came to him. Humans dream.

A small breeze danced around the clearing playfully, carrying a familiar scent. His eyes tracked the wind by the disturbance of the leaves around it. It drifted by Kagome, playing with her hair. Then the dirt smeared on her face as if someone had brushed away her tear.

In an instant, he was on his feet welding Tokijin. The breeze came to greet him and swirled around his body, the scent reminding him of his childhood.

'Sesshomaru-sama. You have been given a great many choices.'

The voice pulled at his memory as much as her scent did. But he didn't understand how she connected to Inuyasha's wretch. Tenseiga pulsed at his hip. He glanced down at the sword before sheathing Tokijin and placing his hand on Tenseiga's hilt.

'You can condemn her, or you can save her. Find the strength your father knew you had and choose wisely, for you may only choose once.'

Sesshomaru let out a rumbling growl at the mention of his father. He heard her musical laughter before the breeze died, and the scent faded.

'Why must she always be so cryptic?' He thought, irritated.

The Miko's aura churned and hissed menacingly, becoming more and more agitated with the absence of the spirit. Then he noticed the smell of her blood had almost disappeared. He cursed himself as he approached her for not noticing earlier. His eyes grew wide when se saw her wounds were all just very prominent raised scars.

She made a pathetic mewing sound, and squeezed her eyes shut.

Her aura suddenly returned to the violent, agonized evil it had been the night before and he felt her power well up.

She was silent for only a second before he heard a sickening crack. Her bright chocolate eyes opened wide and she let out an ear piercing shriek of agony as he watched the malice and the hatred return to her eyes. They grew darker and darker until the iris almost glowed a sick red. Her hands dug into the ground and her back arched.

He watched with mild interest, wondering if her body had metabolized his poison yet or if this was the result of his acid running through her veins.

When her lungs ran out of air, she panted between broken, hysterical sobs.

It began making sense to him. The night before she had lost so much blood she couldn't feel the wounds he inflicted on her. Now, she could feel everything.

'Father, the blade that can give life as well as send enemies directly to hell, was it given to me for this decision? For my half brothers whore?'

He watched her for a moment more before returning to his tree.

'Hn, I'd only believe something that asinine if…what did she say?...if pigs could fly?' He snickered.

'I have not seen one yet, wretch, but I have watched a dead girl dream.'


	5. The Mind is a Fickle Thing

**Edited a little bit, nothing huge and nothing plotful, which isn't a word. To rephrase, nothing about the plot was edited in this chapter, just some things that bugged me that I felt the need to fix. **

**As always, please r&r if you find the time. Let me know what you think of the edits if you've read this story before!**

**-Emily**

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"Kagome-chan!"

"Kagome!"

'Ughh. Kagome, Kagome; give it a rest. Don't they understand I'm sleeping?'

The smell of earth and blood was thick around her, and her groggy mind couldn't seem to understand why.

"Kagome, stay with me!"

'Mama? Why? Where am I?' Someone touched her forehead and suddenly her neck felt like it was on fire; the dull throbbing she hardly noticed becoming excruciating. White lights blossomed behind her closed eyes. She wanted to slap the person touching her, make them stop, but she suddenly felt weightless. The smell of dirt disappeared and was replaced by the smell of rubbing alcohol and plastic as she was hoisted off what she assumed had to be the ground and placed her on something hard and very flat. She must have made a pained facial expression, because she heard her mother sob.

"Kagome, baby, it will all be okay soon. We're gunna get you help, okay? Just hang on, honey, hang on."

The fog of pain lifted a little now that she was stationary again. Something was wrapped around her head, supporting her neck and resting on her shoulders. It hadn't done much to stop the pain, but she failed to notice it before now. The overly clean stench of the alcohol reached her nose again.

'A neck brace? Am I going to the hospital? Since when is there a hospital in the Feudal Era?'

There was a pause in the garbled medical speak that had been humming in her ears like mildly irritating background music.

"Would you like to ride with your daughter, Ma'am?"

"Of course. Souta, grandpa, be good. I'll be back as soon as I can."

'Souta? Grandpa… I'm back in my own time…what happened? Why am I hurt?'

She felt the gurney lift and she tilted precariously before the medics corrected themselves.

'Stairs. I'm being taken from the well house... No… No that CAN'T be right. If I was at the well I could feel the magic there. Inuyasha would be with me and the Shikon shards would…'

Dread punched her in the stomach like a professional boxer as her pain numbed mind put the pieces together.

'…the Shikon.'

It felt like her heart stopped. Her whole body was numb, but that didn't stop the nasty combination of dread and despair from nestling down in the pit of her stomach like unbearable weights. She wanted to scream and cry and blow something up, but all she could do was lie there catatonic and wish it all wasn't true.

'Wish, hah. Irony is a bitch.'

She retreated into the depths of her mind, escaping the muffled sobbing of her mother, the detached reports to the hospital about her condition and the whine of the ambulance engine. She drew the darkness around her and willed the world silent so she could sulk in peace.

But like a horror movie you can't stop watching, her mind eventually returned to the last battle she would ever fight with her Feudal friends, and pushed play.

The memory of the blood and the gore almost made her retch. She had thought the worst was actually experiencing it. Here in the safety of her mind she had time to process it and really see all of it. The putrid, rotting smell of miasma still lingered in her nose and heightened the experience. Naraku, almost as if he knew she was reliving this moment, turned his slimy gaze to rest on her. Pink light enveloped her entire field of vision as she released an arrow aimed right for his stupid fucking smirk.

It hit, and globs of his body absorbed the pieces that remained.

She realized at this point in the battle, Kikyo had already surrendered their shards of the jewel in their purest form to disperse some of the evil in the rest of the jewel. It had weakened Naraku considerably, and his regeneration powers had obviously slowed.

Her eyes were locked on her enemy, but she caught glimpses of her friends in her peripherals, and when they jumped in front of her to defend her. They looked awful. Not one was unscathed, but all of them were still fighting gallantly even through the disadvantages of their wounds.

An explosion of yellow light came from her right and she remembered jumping up and down happily as she saw the dismayed look on Naraku's newly regenerated face as his body was ripped in three parts. She remembered almost believing it was over.

Then she saw Kikyo fall. Tentacles exploded out of the mass of flesh Naraku called a body and ran her through. After that, she hadn't been able to concentrate on the other Miko, but she heard herself scream her name as she dodged and purified the tentacles coming for her as well. His goal was to eradicate both priestesses in one fell swoop, and Kikyo no longer had the power to stop him. Or maybe it was all part of her plan to begin with.

"KIKYO? CAN YOU HEAR ME?" Her voice was lost in the sounds of the battle, and panic began to creep into her mind.

She loosed another arrow as she watched Sango fling a sutra covered Hiraikotsu at the tentacles that occupied the space the dead miko stood seconds ago. Kagome knew she wouldn't be there, but she still felt her heart drop when there was no sign of her under the disintegrating tentacles.

'We're not going to win this fight.' Kagome remembered realizing in horror.

Inuyasha was nearing his breaking point, the crimson of the demon fires already tinted his eyes and he was covered in his own blood. Kirara had been pummeled out of the sky and Sango thrown down a few feet away from her. Blood dripped from her mouth as she staggered to Miroku, who was out of sutras and being worn down quickly by the saimyosho poison coursing through him. And then she remembered the warmth that flowed through her replacing her worry and her fear. It was pure and kind and powerful. It was Kikyo's last stand against the evil she felt she had released on the world. She drew an arrow, notched it and aimed.

A single word whispered to her broke any barrier holding her power back.

'Fire.'

She released her arrow and it surged forth with both hers and Kikyo's power. Naraku watched with knowing eyes as his fate raced toward him. It struck the sacred jewel and purified it instantly. Naraku's body disintegrated into glittering ash, and then scattered by the wind. Kikyo's body was nowhere to be found, and Kagome felt her aura drifting away.

Kagome felt a tear run down her face. It was only when she felt someone wipe it gently away that she realized she was crying in the present, not in her memory.

'Come, Onigumo.'

The voices in Kagome's memory made her heart ache.

'Kikyo-sama...'

She hardly recognized that voice. There was no malice, no hatred. This was Onigumo the human. The human that loved Kikyo.

'Our time has come. Hell awaits us.'

'Together?'

'Together.'

There was a pause, and the evil in the atmosphere dissipated.

'Thank you.'

Kagome was then aware that she clutched the jewel in her left hand.

'Make a wish, Kagome-sama.'

There was no regret in her voice. Only relief. She could rest, Naraku gone from the world. Then Kikyo's voice and aura faded away entirely and Kagome knew she was gone. Determination flooded her body and she looked down at the jewel. Kagome desperately wanted to stop seeing this all again, knowing where it would all lead. But the words echoed in her head before she could stop them.

'Shikon Jewel, I wish you would disappear forever!'

There was an explosion of light.

Depression clouded the memory, and she almost changed her train of thought, but something pulled to her minds eye. Before she had watched without seeing but this time, she really saw. The waves of pure power flowed out of the jewel and into her body. She watched, astonished at this new development. The power grew muddy until it was a darker evil than even Naraku, all pouring into her.

'I don't remember this… why don't I remember this?'

Now she really felt like she was watching a movie, unsure of what the outcome would be, feeling completely detached from her body.

The power released from the Shikon didn't trickle to a halt. There was just suddenly no more leaving it. The shell of the jewel disappeared into a little puff of dust.

Kagome suddenly felt small in her own mind. She knew something was wrong; her body slouched over and unmoving did not feel like her own. In fact, she really couldn't feel her body. She should be checking on all of her friends, not just standing here like an idiot.

Fragments of chaotic emotion she didn't remember a reason for rolled over her in waves. There was no order in her mind. It wasn't hers to control anymore. Her thoughts were reduced to disjointed memories and flashes of color. The only thing she was sure of was she felt no joy. There was none left to feel.

The chaos stopped. Her eyes, which had been open but unseeing, refocused. Miroku stood before her. He was calling her name, but it sounded like she was underwater. Relief flooded through her. He was okay. That meant Sango and Inuyasha should be fine too. She went to turn to look for them, but her body didn't respond. She was still staring blankly at Miroku. She saw fear flicker across his face, and she felt her own features tighten and she rose up out of her slouch.

Miroku grabbed her shoulders and shook her weakly, still calling her name.

Tangible evil began to permeate through the last stronghold in her mind. And all she could do was watch.

'This is…a memory?'

Her eyes caught movement by her stomach, but she couldn't look away from Miroku's face, now bearing a horrified expression. Momentarily she was aware of a tingling sensation near the base of her neck, but her mind rejected the feeling, overcome by panic. She began groping in the darkness of her own mind, searching for a way out.

'NO! THIS ISN'T RIGHT AT ALL!'

Kagome tried to return to the semi-consciousness with her mother in the ambulance.

'I'M NOT IN THE FEUDAL ERA ANYMORE. I'M WITH MY MOM, AND WE'RE PROBABLY AT THE HOSPITAL ALREADY! I NEED TO WAKE UP! PLEASE! PLEASE… JUST LET ME WAKE UP!'

Kaede's voice echoed through her mind.

'I can't think of anyone who used the Shikon's power and was happy because of it.'

The darkness only got thicker and tighter around her. There was no getting out of this. The line between reality and fabrication had been breached, and she no longer knew what had really happened.

'Help me...'

She suddenly realized what had moved by her stomach, because it moved again.

Her hand shot out and buried itself deep inside Miroku's chest. He looked shocked, his eyes wide and his hands subconsciously tightened on her shoulders. She felt his punctured lungs contract inside his chest and blood trickled out of his mouth. He met her gaze with sad eyes, his shock melting into acceptance. She pulled her hand back, and he stood for a moment before his knees would no longer hold him. The life was gone from his eyes before he hit the ground.

She felt herself smile wickedly.

'Miroku...sama...'

She felt an unsteady tha-thump in her chest.

'I didn't...'

The tingling in her neck grew almost painful.

'I couldn't have...'

Her lungs expanded with a long bated breath.

'No...'

She felt a sickening crunch in the back of her neck, and the most excruciating pain she had ever experienced flooded her body. Her eyes opened, her hands clawed the ground, and she screamed.

Screamed for help.

Screamed for Miroku.

Screamed for it all just to end.


	6. And So It Begins

**EDITS. LOTS OF THEM IN THIS CHAPTER.**

**I made this kiiind of a fluffy chapter. I like it. It lightens my story considerably, which is nice, because I'm in a good mood today and I really didn't want to write death and gloom and gore today. But there will be plenty of that in upcoming chapters. I have something fun in store. Bahahahaa. **

**Anyway, please review. I love you all,**

**-Emily**

* * *

His ears lay flat against his head and his cheeks burned as he forged on through the trees. They couldn't afford to stop now. If he let his mind wander, he could almost imagine it was Kagome on his back instead of the demon slayer, but he couldn't fool himself for long. Her legs were too well muscled and she was too tense, gripping onto him like he was about to drop her at any moment. Every time he touched a tree branch and leapt forward, her whole body would spasm and her legs felt like they were going to crush his internal organs.

'At least I convinced her to hold onto my shoulders instead of choking me to death.' He almost smirked. Kagome had been so use to riding on his back that she moved with him and relaxed into his back like it was second nature. And even if she tried to relax, it still wouldn't feel normal. Kirara was snuggled between Sango's breasts and Inuyasha's shoulder blades, forming a weird, wriggling, uncomfortable nub digging into his back. She didn't like the ride any more than Sango did.

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" Sango asked, gripping onto him for dear life as he leapt an especially large gap between trees. He pointed ahead into the thicket of trees and undergrowth.

"That direction."

"So in other words, you have no idea."

"Nope."

She bit her tongue to hold back the angry words that were about to come spilling out of her mouth. Her thighs were aching from the effort of seizing up and relaxing repeatedly all day. But Inuyasha had been right; they needed to cover more ground if there was to be any hope of finding their friend, or her brother if he was still alive. She took a deep breath and slowly let herself put her weight into Inuyasha's arms. He instantly locked his arms around her thighs, anchoring her in place and for the first time felt secure on his back.

'Now I see why Kagome always chose Inuyasha as her method of transportation…' She mused to herself, her chest tightening with the thought.

She looked at his long silver hair, resisting the urge to bury her face in it and cry. She leaned forward ever so slightly, strands brushing her face with the movement of the wind, and then suddenly her face connected with the back of Inuyasha's skull as he stopped dead without warning.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" She rubbed the stars from her eyes before she noticed he was growling menacingly like a feral animal. Adrenaline shot through her and her hand found her sword, searching for an assailant.

"Inuyasha…what is it?"

"I can smell her. I can smell her blood." His whole body was shaking. He turned his head to look at her, and she was shocked to see the panic in his eyes. "Sango, there's so much blood."

"Well then we better go find her fast, then." He nodded, and she gripped his shoulders just in time before he veered off his previous course, charging with new vigor. But every step was a weight on Sango's heart, his words echoing in her head.

'There's so much blood.'

* * *

**She isn't moving.**

'How very observant of you…'

**Is she dead?**

'No.'

**She smells dead.**

'She's not.'

**You sure?**

'Yes.'

**Oh. Well… can we eat her?**

'No.'

**Why not?**

'She smells dead.'

**Only a little dead…**

His fingers clenched into fists, digging into the pads of his hands. Patience was a virtue not possessed by the Dog clan, and Sesshomaru was no exception. The miko had done a fair share of thrashing and screaming before her body had again granted her the gift of unconsciousness, leaving him nothing to do but wait. Wait, and think. And that had not gone well so far.

The conundrum of the spirit's cryptic words kept him entertained until he had divulged no answers hours later. Possible answers had stopped being individual thoughts and had started meshing together giving him not only a headache, but no other options. He needed Myoga, or Totosai. Someone who would know how and why this spirit, which he would have much rather remained lost, now roamed freely. And that, unfortunately, would probably lead him to crossing paths with Inuyasha.

And that was unacceptable; not when he reeked of his brother's miko's blood.

'Now I remember why I keep you muzzled.'

**Why's that, again?**

'You're irritating.'

**You missed me.**

In his desperation, he decided on a very, very last resort; his demon. Composed of his most primal instincts and emotions, a full demons inner self is impulsive, brash and rather stupid unless trained. At this point in his life, Sesshomaru had so far suppressed his own demon, and with it, his emotion, that it was nearly a completely separate entity. Where he had grace and poise, his demon had over sized paws and a knack for tripping over them. Where he had life experience, his demon was denied the ability to even use his own body since they were first born. Where he had deadly skill in both his human and the demon form he borrows, his demon had hardly the basics. But each of these differences provided an opportunity for his demon to see the situation at hand differently, in a way he might not have, and give him a hint as to what he was supposed to do next.

**ADMIT IT!**

'Stop acting like a puppy.'

**I AM a puppy.**

Sesshomaru felt himself impulsively snarl.

'Then learn to control yourself. Now shut your mouth.'

As he relayed the events that had unfolded over the past two days, he did not miss the pathetic little whimpers of his demon. It had seen the mangled and dead miko before Tokijin had betrayed him, but he had not seen her livid, terrible eyes, and her sick, unnatural movements, and any other time it had been muzzled and blinded since Sesshomaru learned how to do it when he was just a pup.

His control over his demon was something he was praised for at such a young age, but once ambition began to weave its way into his mind; his puppy had only been a hindrance. It was high time he make use of his demon, and mold the moronic ball of fluff into something worth releasing on his enemies, rather than fear losing control of during battle.

As soon as the spirit made its presence known, his demon began yipping and straining to be released from the rest of the barriers Sesshomaru had erected to keep it at bay. He growled, but the pup held still once again at the sound of her voice.

"Sesshomaru-sama. You have been given a great many choices.

You can condemn her, or you can save her. Find the strength your father knew you had and choose wisely, for you may only choose once."

As soon as she was done speaking, the demon growled back, his mood switching as fast as the woman's had.

**Is THIS what you wanted me to answer for you? Get the icicle out of your ass and use your NOSE. Or is that too instinctive for you? That was Midoriko, stupid!**

Sesshomaru started smelling blood, his claws tearing into his palms. He took a deep breath, and resisted the urge to slug himself.

'I don't think you realize how many times over you would have died had you not been a part of this Sesshomaru.'

**Right. Lord Fluffy Butt, suicidal ruler of the West. That has a ring to it, doesn't it? And if that's not what you wanted my help with than what the hell did you want?**

Sesshomaru growled low in his chest, an obvious warning, but he soon realized it did no good. His demon knew they were one, and to hurt it, he would have to harm himself.

'I was asking what she meant, you audacious, disrespectful brat.'

For the first time since he had dug within himself to find his demon, there was peace in his mind. Feeling satisfied that he had perplexed the pup into silence, he took a deep breath, and tried to relax his muscles, which had contracted with the wanton desire to strangle the brat. There was a sudden shift in the energy of his demon, before its voice was ringing through his head.

**SHE MEANT EXACTLY WHAT SHE SAID, SHIT-FOR-BRAINS! SINCE YOU OBVIOUSLY CAN'T KILL HER THE CONVENTIONAL WAY, YOU CAN EITHER USE TENSEIGA AND THAT MEIDOU ZANGETSUHA THING TO SEND HER DIRECTLY TO HELL, OR YOU CAN FIND A WAY TO FIX WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HER TO MAKE HER LOSE HER PURITY. YOU HAVE A CHOICE. THAT'S WHAT SHE WAS SAYING, JACKASS.**

'…jackass?' He cocked an eyebrow.

**YES. JACK…DAMNIT, SESSHOMARU. DID YOU HEAR ANYTHING I JUST SAID?**

The pup continued to whine and yip furiously, eliciting no reaction from his counterpart. Sesshomaru, though thoroughly enjoying how the tables had turned, was slightly dumbfounded. His demon knew far more than he had thought, but he had no idea how it had come about that information.

'Pup, cease your infernal whining. How do you know so much about Tenseiga and the females powers?'

**Despite what you pretend to be, you aren't the stoic killing perfection devoid of life and emotion. When something makes you sincerely happy, or sad, or any powerful emotion that isn't anger or hatred, because frankly, I'm sick of those two, there is a window into your world. I watched when Totosai told you Tenseiga could be reforged into a weapon, and when you mastered that technique. I watched when Rin found you and tried to tend your wounds. I watched when she died a second time, and your mother brought her back. I watched…**

'ENOUGH. I understand.'

The pup was silent again, gracing him with time to think. But time was once again, not on his side. The sigh he allowed himself brought an all too familiar stench into his nose. Irritation shot through him, and he heard his demon grumble something about him not learning a thing before the muzzle was latched back around his snout.

Sesshomaru's eyes shot open, and he stood just in time to leap out of the way of the Wound of the Wind.

"KAGOME!" The rough yell felt like fire in his ears having been adjusted to the silence.

Hiraikotsu came barreling towards him. With ease, he caught the giant bone and hurled away from the demon slayer somewhere in the surrounding trees. The Wound of the Wind came at him again, but he stepped around the poorly aimed attack and saw it was just a diversion before the giant fire cat charged him. It got a good grip on his arm with her teeth before he managed to punch her off. She roared and returned unsteadily to the two on the ground.

Both demon slayer and hanyo crouched by the miko. He could smell the slayers tears from here, and Inuyasha just gaped at the scars that still covered her body. Obviously, neither could feel the contempt in her aura. She had reacted violently to the sound of their voices, and Sesshomaru knew she would not stay unconscious with this chaos around her for long.

His half-brother turned to him, his eyes flinty and filled with pain.

"SESSHOMARU, WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO HER!"


	7. You Have Never Loved Me

**BAM. New chapter. It's short I know, but I'm getting back into the swing of writing, so it may take me a minute to really get rolling with this again. So from this point on, I solemnly swear I am up to no good, and also that it will not be another two years before I post another chapter. **

**Please, please let me know what you think. Rate, review, message me. I wanna hear from you guys. **

**Emily**

* * *

Inuyasha hurled attack after attack at him, grief making him reckless with his power. Sesshomaru dodged, unsure of whether to trust Tokijin again after its betrayal.

"STOP DANCING AROUND AND FACE ME, SESSHOMARU. DRAW YOUR SWORD." Inuyasha roared, sending a barrage of diamonds tearing towards him.

"I do not need a sword to face the likes of you." He avoided the attack and lunged at Inuyasha, claws tearing through his fire rat hakima and grazing the flesh beneath. Inuyasha leapt backwards swearing.

"Who did this to her? Tell me now or I'll MAKE you answer me." With the blood from his injury, Blades of Blood punctuated his threat as he sprinted towards his half-brother. Tetsusaiga tasted the flesh of Sesshomaru's palm as he caught the sword before it did more serious damage. The pressure of the sword made his wound from Tokijin scream. He wrenched the sword from Inuyasha's arm and flung it away from him, the barrier of the sword leaving his hand burning and steaming. Inuyasha's eyes began to glow a dangerous red.

Claws against claws, Inuyasha attacked swiping at his half-brother with bloody hands. Sesshomaru dodged easily, his demon speed always keeping him one step ahead of the half demon, but Inuyasha's speed was increasing as his eyes grew darker. Jagged blue striped appeared on his cheeks and Blades of Blood came hurtling towards him again. In retaliation, Sesshomaru's acid whip lashed out and struck him on the cheek leaving a line of torn flesh through his right stripe. Inuyasha stopped dead, his fists clenched so hard blood dripped from his palms.

"I'll give you one more chance, Sesshomaru. No more games. Tell me what the fuck you did to Kagome, or I will kill you." His voice was deadly quiet, his fangs lengthening as he spoke.

"Hn." Sesshomaru turned as the swell of power peaked, the malevolence of her conscious presence was almost suffocating. The slayer gasped and shrieked with joy.

'Fool…'

"Inuyasha?" Her voice cut the air and the half demon's heart nearly stopped. Instantly, his eyes were golden and shining.

"Ka…Kagome?"

"Kagome, we were so worried about you! What happened to you? Where did you go? These scar… Kagome?" She lay with eyes wide but looking at nothing. Her body trembled like she was cold despite the warmth of the summer sun. The clashing of dark energy against pure power charged the air. Sesshomaru's eyes widened ever so slightly.

'Is she fighting the power that is controlling her?'

"S…Sango." Her fingertips dug into the ground, but her familiar energy was being subdued and her shaking stopped. Her eyes focused, filled with that same black fire. She sat up and cracked her neck, giving Sesshomaru a small amount of sick pleasure. Her sinister eyes met his.

"That hurt, Sesshomaru. Next time I won't play so nicely with you." Her lips twisted in a cruel smile. Inuyasha was beside her instantly.

"What did he do to you, Kagome?" She slowly turned to face him and he froze where he crouched beside her.

"And why do you care? Have you decided you prefer to fuck warm bodies instead of clay?" Inuyasha's jaw hit the ground and Sango stared at her in horror. Sesshomaru watched carefully as she cackled at the two of them and stood. Her movements were still spasmodic and wrong, but there was more control than there had been. Sesshomaru wondered what that meant.

"What do you mean… Kagome, Kikyo died. We've been trying to find you."

"She died again." She corrected. "And again, you're running to me as a replacement." Her leering smile grew wider as she looked down at them. Sango stared with teary eyes at her friend.

"What's wrong with you, Kagome? What happened?" Sango's eyes scanned her body. The torn clothing clinging to her skeletal frame hardly covered any part of her anymore, showing off the scars like a showcase. One particularly nasty one from her belly button to her shoulder was still an angry red.

"Are you crying, Sango? I thought you were stronger than that." Sango couldn't meet her awful eyes, but answered anyway.

"Miroku's dead too." The slayer almost whispered. "When I woke up after you purified Naraku, he was lying in a pool of his own blood. Naraku must have gotten him just before you killed him." The bark of harsh laughter made the two of them jump.

"You're a fool. Naraku was dead long before Miroku." Understanding came creeping into Sango's eyes in the form of absolute horror.

"But…how could you know that…" She was almost begging for any answer but the truth.

"Because, dear Sango, I ripped his beating heart out with my own hands." She casually examined her hand and licked her lips. "His blood tasted so sweet." Sango let out a wail and reached for her sword to cut Kagome down, but couldn't find it in her to slay her friend and collapsed to the ground in a heap. Inuyasha immediately turned on Sesshomaru, screaming.

"WHO IS THIS? WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO WITH THE REAL KAGOME?" He was ready to charge when her shriek of cruel laughter stopped him dead.

"Don't blame him, Inuyasha. What I am is your fault." He looked like she had punched him. His face contorted in pain and his eyes filled with tears.

"But…Kagome… I loved you." She sneered at him and cocked her head, leaning forward as if she was going to tell him a secret.

"Oh Inuyasha…" She put a finger to his chest. "You have never loved me." An explosion of black energy threw Inuyasha backwards and across the clearing. Sango gave a broken scream and sprang at Kagome, sword drawn. Kagome turned to the woman and watched as she smashed into a barrier of black energy, her body twitching and convulsing until she finally fell unmoving to the ground. She stared at Sango for a moment before raising her wicked eyes to Sesshomaru. The smirk fell away from her lips as her expression twisted to one of shock and pain. The aura of a miko began to permeate the evil, suppressing the malice and set the hairs on the back of his neck to standing up straight with the pure crackle of her power. The black of her eyes faded to chocolate brown, and she looked in horror at what she had done. She almost looked like the wench she used to be, but a pang went through him when her huge brown eyes met his, filled with so much agony.

"Sesshomaru-sama...help me." She whispered.

* * *

A flaming cow streaked across the sky with only one apparent rider, yet a conversation was taking place.

"ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THIS? SHE'S OUT OF CONTROL. WE'LL BE KILLED!" The voice issued from somewhere near the shoulder area of the old man riding the cow.

"We have to, Myoga. Master Sesshomaru is too stubborn to realize what he must do to save her." Totosai's huge eyes narrowed down at the little flee demon trying to sneak away off his shoulder. "And don't you dare go running away! I need your help."

"Can't we wait until they're done fighting?" He cried desperately.

"No, he might succeed in killing her this time. We must get there as soon as we can. If that girl dies, then all is lost." Myoga let out an exasperated noise and hid inside the collar of Totosai's shirt.

"I need to find a new class of demons. Dog demons are too excitable. Maybe a cat demon. All they do is sleep." The flee mumbled to himself grumpily, drifting into a fantasy about sucking the blood of a purring female cat demon stretched out in the sun.

"Think of cat demons later, we're almost there." Totosai told Myoga. He could feel Sesshomaru's presence faintly already and another that left his hair standing on end. Every ounce of common sense screaming to turn back, but they flew on to try and save whatever was left of the girl they once knew.

'I just hope we make it in time.' He thought gravely, urging the cow faster.


	8. Destiny

**Hello everyone! A HUUUUGE thank you to the people that favorited and followed my story. You're the best. I've been on a roll recently, but I'm still not entirely sure where I'm going with this fic, but I'm following those wicked little musings in my head, so I'm sure nothing good will come of it. **

**SO! Here's another chapter. Enjoy, and as always RATE AND REVIEW! Please and thank you! (:**

**-Emily**

* * *

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed at the girl. She did not move, only stood there staring at him with silent tears running down her cheeks. Her eyes began to darken and roll back in her head as a huge surge of black power smashed into her pure aura, trying to overtake it and reclaim her body. She doubled over as if she'd been struck and let out a moan that sounded like 'help.' He felt her aura slipping away.

"Girl, control yourself." His voice was acidic. She sobbed, but raised her head and looked at him. The darkness receded a bit from her eyes.

"I can't." He ignored her whimper and approached her slowly, his stoic mask looking rather more foreboding than usual. Her eyes widened and she cowered before him. He raised his hand, and she shut her eyes, waiting for the final blow to come. A clawed finger traced the angry red scar from her shoulder to her belly button and a chill ran up her spine threatening to break the exhausting amount of concentration it took to maintain control of herself.

"How are you alive? My acid should have eaten through your broken human body as easily as my claws cut your flesh." He pressed a claw into her scar as a demonstration, drawing a bead of blood. Instantaneously, black fire lit within her eyes and he just barely avoided the well-aimed kick to his head. She was getting faster.

"Don't touch me, dog." She snarled. He growled low in his chest as a warning.

"Concentrate, wench. And if you assault this Sesshomaru once more there will be dire consequences." She summoned her power, but wasn't enough to regain control. With one swell of the evil energy, her aura drowned in darkness.

'Shit...' He swore silently. 'She's as unstable as my mother.' She smirked and cracked her knuckles.

"I thought we already established that you cannot kill me. But you did give it one hell of a shot. Maybe I should return the favor." She shakily stepped towards him, the blackness of her aura bubbling up darker and darker as her pure power waned.

"I would not recommend that." His golden eyes stared her down, his hand on Tenseiga. He would not give this girl the opportunity to humiliate him again. Her head lolled to one side giving him a degradingly amused look.

"I like playing with your sword," she grinned. "But it didn't end well for you last time." He pushed the sword from its sheath with his thumb.

"Don't test me, girl." He snarled. She sauntered closer to him on unsteady legs.

"I don't want to test you, Sesshomaru-sama," she mocked, her eyes voids of endless black. "I want to bathe in your blood."

She lurched towards him, claws extending from her fingertips. So distracted with her changing morphology, he simply just caught her wrist and examined her hand. When the other came flying up to claw his chest, he caught that one as well.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" She strained against his iron grip, but was getting nowhere fast. He felt her power shift ever so slightly, and moved her hand so it was aimed over his shoulder into the woods just as a ball of raw power exploded from her palm. She fought to claw at his chest as the sounds of falling rubble faded.

"I don't make the same mistake twice, wench." He snarled at her, readying himself for another attack. She suddenly stopped her belligerence and leaned around his body to look where her power took out a few trees and scored the land.

"We have visitors." She growled.

Sesshomaru's ears twitched as he caught an almost inaudible cry of discontent accompanied by the smell of steel and fire that belonged unmistakably to Totosai.

'How the hell did she notice them before I did?'

The power struggle within Kagome began anew, as the prospect of hurting more innocent people sent a terrifying surge of joy through her. Her aura became turbulent with the massive shifting of power.

"YOU NEARLY KILLED ME. WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?" Totosai yelled. Kagome snarled, struggling within herself. A sudden surge of pure power forced Sesshomaru to release her, leaving burn marks on his hands from where he touched her. She fell to her knees with the effort of taking back her body, but her power had found purchase somewhere within her mind. When she looked up at him, her eyes were big and brown and filled with regret. She opened her mouth but before she could speak, irritation flashed across Sesshomaru's face.

"MASTER SESSHOMARU!" Myoga stopped sucking the taiyoukai's blood long enough to call out a greeting. Sesshomaru flattened him with a sharp smack. Totosai's cow came waddling into the clearing as the old demon dusted rubble and leaves off his shirt and his ride. Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed at the old man as he brushed the flee demon off his claws and watched him fall to the ground.

"Why are you here?" Sesshomaru asked coolly.

"To help. Why else? How's Tenseiga? Have you mastered Meidou Zangetsuha yet? " The other demon responded. Sesshomaru glared at him.

"Hn." Totosai rolled his eyes and got off his cow and sat next to the girl kneeling in the scorched grass, his hammer still slung over his shoulder.

"Always the conversationalist. How are you feeling, Kagome?"

"Totosai…what's happening to me?" She stammered out.

"What was always destined to happen, child. The Shikon was born a part of you, and it has returned to where it belongs."

"Destined…you knew this would happen? Why didn't you warn us? Why can't I control myself…my body? Inuyasha and Sango. I tried to kill them. Miroku… I DID kill him. You could have stopped me!" Her eyes filled with tears as she looked over at the bodies of her two friends.

Her guilt and anger was spiraling out of control, the evil within her gaining power from her emotional distress. Sesshomaru growled and she looked up to him. He didn't say a word, just held her in place with a molten gold gaze, and Totosai watched as her eyes slowly cleared, but her hold on her mind had slipped a little bit. Confusion flashed through Kagome's eyes before tearing her gaze away from Sesshomaru and looking to Totosai, looking pained and exhausted.

"Yes, and no. We did not know it would be you, or if it would be Kikyo. You were half of a whole, and therefore it could have been either one of you. But one thing was certain, in order to destroy the Shikon Jewel, one of you had to be sacrificed. You have thousands of years of evil running rampant inside of you; it's no surprise you can't control them. Midoriko's power kept the demons locked within the Shikon for years, constantly battling them for dominance. When you wished for it to disappear, you released her soul from that eternal battle and became the new vessel. That much power cannot be destroyed, it just changed form and became part of you. I could have warned you, but if I had, would you have done anything differently?"

Kagome dropped her gaze and stared at the ground. Tears dripped onto her hands as she shook her head.

"No. If I had just disappeared with the jewel… I would gladly have made that sacrifice for everyone. But…if I can't control it, I'm no better than Naraku." Her voice was just above a whisper. Myoga climbed up onto her hands, carefully avoiding a teardrop.

"No, Kagome. You are nothing like that. Midoriko also gifted you her power when you released her from that hell. You have the means to win this, but do you have the strength? You know it will not be an easy fight." The flee youkai said, being uncharacteristically brave.

"I…I can try. But I don't even know where to begin. Self-control has never been a strong suit of mine. And the darkness…it's so strong." She looked up at Totosai. "How can I control something like that?"

"How are you doing it now?" Totosai smiled. Kagome looked bewildered. "The battle will be yours to fight, but you will have help. I forged Tetsusaiga as a seal for Inuyasha's demon blood. I can help you seal the demonic energy within you, but the seal on Tetsusaiga would break in seconds under the kind of duress you will be putting on it."

"You can't make a stronger seal?" She asked, crestfallen. The purity in her aura slipped away just a little bit more, darkening with her mood.

"No, but there is something that could. But it could also very well kill you."

"Mount Hakurei is one of the purest places on the planet. No demon walks away from that barrier unscathed. It suppresses demonic energy like nothing else. If you can cross it and seal the demon blood with your own power while it is thoroughly weakened by the barrier, then the seal Totosai forges for you will make sure that stays that way." Myoga explained.

"That's hundreds of miles from here, I won't make it. Not without killing everyone I find." She shook her head again, and pushed herself to her feet. Her eyes drifted to Inuyasha and Sango, tears pooling on her eyelashes. She stared at the ground, but he could feel her giving up, the darkness overcoming her. Sesshomaru watched her; unsure of how much longer she could sustain this level of control. He had to admit, for her to have been this rational this long was impressive, but it had taken its toll. She looked to Sesshomaru, a new bleakness in her eyes, and for some reason even he couldn't fathom, her next words made his blood run cold.

"Kill me." She whispered.


	9. A Life For a Life

**WOHOOO! New chapter. Three in three days. That has to be some kind of record for me. Again, a huge awesome thank you to the people that have commented, favorited and followed. You are the best. **

**Please keep rating & reviewing!**

**Emmy**

* * *

Inuyasha drifted in and out of consciousness for a while. His head throbbed, and every muscle in his body screamed with the even the thought of moving. The taste of dirt and that corrosive black power filled his mouth, but he made no move to do anything about it. He was not gravely injured mind his pride, his heart, and the bruise throbbing on his chest, but all of the determination and ambition had left him. He was vaguely aware of voices coming from where Kagome and Sesshomaru had been, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. He drifted back out of consciousness, into the sweet dark arms of oblivion.

Kagome filled his mind. Smiling, laughing, crying, yelling. She was everywhere, and she was nowhere. Then she stood before him, her ethereal lips brushing against his so lightly, but when he reached to pull her closer in she had disappeared just out of sight. He followed her scent, expecting her to be waiting for him somewhere in the darkness, but there was nothing. Only her scent.

He heard her laugh, but something was off. He ran towards the sound and found Sango lying on the ground, blood bubbling from her mouth as she tried to speak. He knelt down next to her and gathered her in his arms, looking for the source of her injuries, but there was no wound to explain the pool of blood she lay in.

'Inu…yasha…you have to save…Kagome. Kill…him…" She choked out, drawing in a final wracking breath. Her body stilled, the light gone from her eyes and she faded away into blackness as well. Inuyasha's arms went limp with nothing left of the slayer to hold. He heard her laughter again, now placing why it was wrong in his memory. She was laughing with that same cruelty that poisoned her every word right before she betrayed him.

'SANGO! KAGOME?' He ran, groping in the darkness for something, anything. It constricted around him like a cage and panic infected his mind.

'KAGOME!' He screamed, tearing through the darkness. And then she was there smirking at him and piercing his soul with those terrible eyes. Sesshomaru stood behind her, a victorious sneer on his lips. Kagome's smirk twisted into a contended one as she leaned against the chest of his half-brother, but her voice was laced with acid as she addressed him.

'Why are you here? I don't need you anymore. I found someone who can really take care of me. He's everything you've always wanted to become, but what you'll never be able to be. Go away, Inuyasha. You're not wanted here.'

Sesshomaru put an arm around her, and they turned away. Inuyasha was seething with rage and hurt.

'I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, SESSHOMARU.' The darkness got tighter and tighter until there was nothing but black.

He opened his glowing crimson eyes and saw Sesshomaru. Nothing else processed but the absolute need to end him and to destroy every trace that he had ever walked this earth.

* * *

"Come now, girl. Don't be dramatic." Sesshomaru hissed, trying to slow his racing heart. Her request had taken him completely aback, and the sacrifice she was willing to make to save innocent lives from her own weakness pulled at something buried deep within him. More than anything though, he was angry she had elicited such a strong reaction from him with only two words.

"While that's very noble of you, if you die before we seal that power to you, then it will be unleashed all over again. The effort of thousands of years of suppressing this evil will be for naught." Totosai raised his eyes to the demon lord. "But she is right. She will not make it on her own. You are the only one with enough power to even hope to control her." Totosai's voice instantly snapped him out of his stupor, and he glared at the other demon.

"She is not this Sesshomaru's responsibility." Sesshomaru heard her snicker. Black pools met golden orbs, glowing with a triumphant light at the concept of the possible freedom.

"That's right, Sesshomaru," she purred, "I am not. I'll find my own way. I walk straight to the summit and destroy myself, if that's what it takes," she vowed sarcastically, giggling sinisterly.

"Hn." His eyes raked her body with his usual contemptuous expression. Totosai was trying to burn holes in Sesshomaru with his gaze, realizing the decision that he had made.

'No, don't let me leave. Please, I'm begging you. I'm lying. I'll hurt people.' Kagome tried to scream at him, but the words never left her mouth. The shifting of power set the back of her neck tingling, and it took her a moment to realize that it was not her power that she was feeling. Three things happened at once, Sesshomaru turned on heel to leave her to her own devices, Inuyasha sent Wind Scar ripping towards Sesshomaru, and it felt like time slowed around Kagome as pure instinct willed her body into motion. She flung herself in front of the youkai lord glimpsing the first true expression of shock she had ever seen on his face as her power surged forth, forming a barrier around the two of them as the chaos of the Wind Scar raged around them.

'She's…protecting me…' Where her purity had burned him before, this felt like warm waves washing over him. She gave him a pleading look before her face contorted in pain, and the pink energy shielding them flickered and then disappeared completely. The rage of the attack sent her flying into him, barreling him over onto his back. The ferocious winds finally died down, and Sesshomaru looked around. Totosai was already on his cow speeding away.

"WHY ARE ALL OF YOU TRYING TO KILL ME? WHAT THE HELL. MYOGA, LET'S GO... Myoga? YOU COWARD. WHEN I FIND YOU..." His threats faded off as he and his cow flew out of earshot.

'Idiots.' He watched them leave with contempt in his eyes, and then looked down at the girl lying next to him. Deep scores in her back spilled her blood into the torn earth. She whimpered as she moved to sit up, but her eyes were their normal deep brown as she looked over at him.

"I'm glad…you're okay." She gave him a little half smile. He resisted the urge to bear his fangs at her.

"That was unnecessary, wench," he snarled, but she had no time to respond.

"I'LL KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD." Inuyasha came leaping through the clearing dust, his eyes as red as blood.

"SIT BOY!" He slammed to the earth. Sesshomaru moved to him so quickly he was just a blur of white before he was dangling Inuyasha a foot off the ground by his neck.

"Sesshomaru, please stop!" Inuyasha clawed at the youkai's hand as it flexed tighter. "SESSHOMARU." She screamed, struggling to stand. His mouth twisted in disgust as he flung the hanyo to the ground. Kagome stumbled to him and knelt by his side as he choked in desperately needed air. Blood ran down her back and legs, and her vision started to blur.

"Inuyasha, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you." She touched his chest gently, but he flinched away

"Why did you protect him?" His voice was icy, and his amber eyes were flinty with anger, flicking between her and the ice prince standing a few yards away watching them.

"I don't have time to explain. You need to get away from me. I can't stay with you, I'll hurt you. Take Sango back to Kaede and make sure…make sure she's alright." She begged, growing dizzier from blood loss and gritting her teeth at the pain. It was getting harder and harder to maintain her control, the demonic power within her biding its time as she quickly weakened. He growled low in his chest and refused to look at her. She grabbed his face and turned it towards her. "Inuyasha, answer me, please."

"I have to protect you." Kagome knew he was too stubborn. He was not going to leave her.

"I'll be okay on my own. I promise." She forced a smile. He was unconvinced.

"I won't leave you unprotected, Kagome, so just drop it would ya? I'm coming with you to wherever you're going."

'How do I get him to leave?' She racked her brain desperately, and then an icy voice filled her head and gave her goose bumps, echoed by other voices she did not know.

**Hurt him. Hurt him. He'll go away. Hurt him. Scar him. Break him. Break his heart. Hurt. Break. BLOOD.**

The last word was a roar, echoing in her ears. She looked to Inuyasha with eyes black as coal.

"I don't need your protection, mutt. You couldn't stop me even if you tried. If you follow me, I will kill you, and I will love it. I don't need you anymore. I found someone better suited for that task." She turned to Sesshomaru. "A life for a life, I saved you. You owe me." His eyes narrowed at her, but he said nothing. She turned to Inuyasha, his face a mask of pain.

"But…Kagome…"

"SHUT UP. Leave, before I change my mind and eviscerate you." He made no move to leave, tears in his eyes as he gaped at her. Her heart ached and all she wanted to do was take him in her arms and reassure him, but that wasn't possible. "NOW!" She snarled, standing and walking to Sesshomaru's side, trying to appear steady on her feet. She looked up at him, pleading silently that he would come with her as tears streamed down her face. His eyes were cold, but he turned and walked away into the trees. She followed, forcing herself not to look back. The voice in her head was cackling as she heard Inuyasha sob, before his energy dissipated as he raced off in the direction of the village Kaede lived in. As soon as she was positive he was far enough away, she let herself weep. Sesshomaru had stopped a few feet away, glaring at her.

"You can leave. I know you don't want to babysit me. I just couldn't have him follow me. I'd kill him. I couldn't bear that. I couldn't…" Her eyes rolled back in her head and her knees gave out beneath her. Sesshomaru caught her, cradling her in his arms. He adjusted her position to avoid putting pressure on the raw flesh of her back. Her head ended up nestled against his shoulder, her hand gripping the cloth of his hakima. He sighed, wondering how the hell he ended up in this position.

"A life for a life, miko," he told the unconscious girl as he walked into the trees towards whatever was to come.


	10. Don't You Dare

**Alright, it's been one hell of a week, but I wrote a long chapter to make up for the time it took to get it up here. :D I don't really know how much I like the middle of this chapter, but I love the end. Not very dark, but I'm in to good a mood to write all the bad stuff to come. Thank you to everyone that favorited and followed my story. You make me really happy.**

**As always, PLEASE RATE && REVIEW!**

**Love, Em**

* * *

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked around sleepily. She was wrapped in a soft woolen blanket with a fire burning low next to her. Her body ached and her head throbbed, but for the first time in a long time there was silence within her mind.

The woods around her were quiet, and she closed her eyes again. She thought she was about to drift back to sleep when a sudden rustling noise made her bolt up, groping for a weapon to use against whatever it was. She scanned the trees around her, searching until she noticed a bunny snuffling at the grass twenty yards away by a small pond of water. She relaxed and lay back, pulling the blankets up to her nose.

The leaves above her swayed softly in the wind, their dark green stems bending gracefully. Her eyes followed from where the stem became part of the leaf and branched off into the fine veins that spider webbed in an intricate network of little channels of xylem and phloem.

'Wait…I can SEE that? I could HEAR that? What the hell is going on? I have 20/20 vision, but this is a whole new level of seeing clearly…'

She sat up and looked around, trying to figure out where she was but nothing looked familiar. The embers of what use to be a fire were still hot and glowing, which gave her some peace of mind. Sesshomaru had not been long gone if the fire was still this hot, but there was no sign of the youkai lord. She gave a disgruntled groan as she sat up.

She threw the blanket off intending to stand up when her legs caught her attention. Smooth, pale, unscarred skin covered most of her body. She had been prepared to be a disfigured wretch for the rest of her life as long as it meant no one else got hurt. The only trace that something had gone horribly wrong was the scar from Sesshomaru's acid whip, which was really only a fine pink line, and a few more miscellaneous marks scattered across her body. Her back was the only exception. She was sure she didn't want to see it. It was tingling so bad it was painful, like the sharp pricks of Buyo's claws when he kneaded at her legs when she pet him.

She smiled a little at the memory, staring down at her legs, and then she realized just how much of her legs she could see.

Well, actually how much of all of her she could see.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" She snatched the blanket back, pulling the tender flesh of her back by moving so quickly and wrapped herself in it like a cocoon.

'What the hell what the hell what the HELL! How long have I been dressed like this?' She was horrified, looking around for a more permanent solution to her indecency issue before something else caught her attention. She felt him before she saw him, a mass of power racing towards her and then a white blur streaked into camp. Then he was in front of her, searching for the source of her distress.

Once he had scanned the area and found no threat he turned to her, his eyes still glowing with the prospect of battle. She thought she saw a ghost of the shock she saw on his face when protecting him from the Wind Scar, but it flashed only briefly before once again becoming his usual emotionless mask.

"Why did you scream, girl?" His voice was so icy it gave her chills, but she was so sick of being scared. She fought back the urge to try and gut him and instead growled out through gritted teeth.

"'Cause YOU ripped all my CLOTHES off when I tried to KILL you." She waited for his reaction but he merely returned her gaze with frigid indifference. "Nothing to say, Ice Prince? No, of course not. To answer me would be a waste of oxygen." She scoffed and crossed her arms, sulking. But she wasn't done yet. Words flowed forth in a case of barbed, angry word vomit, and she was helpless to stop them.

"I didn't ask for this you know," she continued. "I don't wanna be a fuckin' demon container. I'm a person, not Tupperware. I was supposed to be with Inuyasha and Sango and Shippo and Miroku. I was supposed to be with my friends, celebrating our GREATEST victory ever, WITHOUT your stinkin' help I might add. I wanna be with them. I wanna be Kagome, the miko, not this half miko half pure evil bullshit. And now I'm stuck here with you, the most audacious, stubborn, IRRITATING youkai to ever LIVE. And you LEFT me here free to go on a killing spree if I woke up as WHATEVER the hell my alter ego is, you DICK." The same voice chuckled low and sinister in the back of her mind, raising goose bumps on her arms.

Her eyes grew huge as she realized what she had said out loud and looked up at the demon before her. His facial expression had not changed. He held her in place with a burning gaze before reaching into his hakima. She was sure it was going to be the end this time, convinced there was no way he would let her live after that. She did not cower this time, so she saw the flicker of something in his face when he pulled out a black kimono and tossed it to the ground beside her. She gaped at him, not sure if it was because of the random act of kindness or if she thought she just saw him smile, if only a little bit. He turned and began to walk away.

"Wa…WAIT! What…Why?" She stammered, moving forward as if to catch him. The blanket slipped off her scarred shoulder and exposed bare skin. He turned, his face a mask, examining the fine pink scar on her shoulder before returning to her face.

"Because, human, your body repulses me." With that, he continued to walk away. "Cover yourself and catch up. Or this Sesshomaru will leave you."

She gaped after him, open mouthed and unable to speak. Finally composing herself, she grabbed the kimono and tossed the blanket aside. Fuming, she shook out the black cloth and gasped.

Delicate dark green flowers growing from golden stalks adorned the hem at the bottom, growing a lighter shade of green as they reached upwards, stopping just below where she would tie the golden obi. She traced the swirling patterns woven into the obi before shrugged into the silky fabric. Her sleeves were tighter than a normal kimono's but the green hems still flowed in the breeze. Slits ran up either side to high on her thighs, and the material ended just below her knees. Black socks reaching up to the middle of her thighs completed the outfit.

'So much for Sesshomaru being traditional…' She tied the obi tightly, slipped on boots very similar to the youkai lords and walked over to the pool of water. 'Ugh, what I wouldn't give for a hot bath right now.'

She kneeled by the water, about to wash her face when the woman looking back at her stopped her dead in her tracks. She was skeletally thin and haggard, and her stomach growled as if reminded that it had not eaten in weeks. But beyond looking enormous in comparison with her gaunt face, her eyes were black.

'That's what Sesshomaru must have been so surprised about.' She leaned closer, about to splash water on her face when she realized they were not black, but midnight blue. She stared for a moment, then dunked her entire head under the water, scrubbing at her scalp with her nails to try and remove some of the caked on dirt and grime. She stood and wrung her hair out and flipped it back, feeling a little better, then marched after Sesshomaru's aura.

It took her a while to catch up to him, mostly because she refused to jog to make up the distance and he refused to stop and wait. When she finally caught him she walked up next to him and opened her mouth as if to speak, and then shut it again. She stared at the ground, her cheeks turning a little red.

"Thanks." She muttered finally, refusing to look at him and instead focused down at greenery between her feet with a newfound fascination brought on by her incredible eyesight.

"Hn," was his only response.

"I've never seen anything like this. Why this and not a miko uniform?" He looked down at her with what could almost be considered a sneer for Sesshomaru.

"Why would I give the garb of a miko to one who is not a miko?" She looked hurt, the darkness in her aura spiking dramatically. Her next words came out quieter with a hint of hurt she failed to hide.

"Well then what is it?"

"The clothing a warrior demoness." She gaped at him incredulously.

"THIS is battle wear? Why is there no armor?! And I'm not a…" The look he gave her froze her words in her mouth and he growled low in his chest.

"You have not earned armor, girl." He snarled, his eyes molten gold and angry. She suddenly felt transparent as glass under his gaze, like he could see into her. Chills ran up her spine at his intensity, but she couldn't force herself to look away.

She drank in every inch of his face with a new appreciation of his perfection that her improved eyesight allowed. Seeing him like this gave him a new level of depth, his eyes radiating fuming golden fires rather than glacial ice of indifference. His jaw clenched ever so slightly, and his lip curled back in micro-expression of a snarl exposing a flash of a glistening white fang. She realized she was still gaping, and tore her eyes away from him. She was suddenly overwhelmed with the desire to quench the anger in his eyes.

"Well, how do I earn it?" She asked softly, her voice barely above a whisper. He was still glaring at her, but his eyes softened considerably.

"Before I answer you that, you must answer a question for this Sesshomaru." She froze for a second, completely taken aback.

"Um, yeah okay. Shoot." His brow furrowed ever so slightly in confusion.

"What do you presume I shoot, girl?" She sighed, forgetting to watch the way she spoke.

"No, I mean ask what you want." He looked at her skeptically, or what she interpreted as skepticism from the slight narrowing of his eyes, but he dropped the subject.

"Why did you demand I accompany you on this trip? The hanyo wanted so desperately to protect you." She heaved a huge sigh.

"I would have killed him. I couldn't stand that. You are the only one with enough power to control me, just like Totosai said." Something flashed through his eyes, but it was too quick for her to read.

"But you did not want me to come, you asked me to leave once the hanyo had gone before you lost consciousness." He pushed, probing her for a deeper explanation.

"I didn't want you to feel forced into it." She paused, her eyes on the ground, "but I did want you to come with me." He looked over at her, trying to hide his surprise.

"Why?" She had a far-away look, her eyes unfocused and sad.

"Inuyasha couldn't have helped me. He was always there for me and always protecting me, but only in a physical sense. I loved him for so long, and he used me and then left me for Kikyo. But I couldn't hate him for that. She was his love, and he was my best friend. I just wanted to see him happy. But he was never very good at anything with any sort of emotional association. He had no control. And I…" she paused, still staring at the ground, "…there was too much history… too much for this thing to use against him. I could not have maintained control. Not with him around. It uses the worst parts of me. My darkest thoughts… my deepest secrets…things I don't want to ever have to relive or see again. It uses them all to psychologically beat me into forfeiting my body just to make it stop."

"But you…" She stopped walking, waiting for him to turn to face her. His eyes met hers, guarded and serious, like he was preparing for her to insult him.

"You and I have no history. No past for it to use against you. Our only encounters have been when you've tried to kill Inuyasha. It doesn't want to kill you. It wants to play with you. Because of the complicated nature of my relationships with my friends, it's easy, and especially in Inuyasha's case, to twist memories into cruel fictions that make me lose my grip on reality. But with you I felt nothing but fear and anger, which are not nearly as powerful as love. And you are a master of control. If anyone could help me learn the art it would be you. And…" She broke off and looked away as a wave of darkness washed over the pure crackle of her power. "Nevermind."

He grabbed her arm as she started to move past him, knowing if he pushed her much more she would revert back to the monster.

"And what, girl?" She looked up at him defiantly, stiffening at his touch, but she soon deflated, her exhausted eyes held nothing but sadness. He could feel her aura darkening slowly with the pain of her realizations.

"When Totosai was explaining this was my destiny, that everyone know I'd go ballistic and kill everyone. You grounded me. I don't know what you did, but I was losing it. There were voices and growling and maniacal laughter roaring in my head. Images of cutting down Inuyasha and Miroku bleeding and my heart felt like it was in my stomach, and then there was you. Standing there glaring at me like you wanted to rip my fucking head off with that look that said 'don't you fucking dare, Kagome. Don't you fucking dare lose it.' And then I just focused on you, on your eyes. It was like you were pulling me back. And it's ridiculous I know, but in that moment, I had this overwhelming feeling that if I stayed with you, I would make it through this. I felt like if I stayed with you, we could make this right."

Sesshomaru's eyes grew wide as she spoke, and when she finished she looked up at him judging his reaction. A pang when through him when he saw the apprehension in her face, but he was shocked into silence.

'Could she think I was planning to leave her alone?'

She looked so frail and scared looking up at him, waiting for his response to her heart being poured out on the table for him to examine and criticize. Her huge dark blue eyes looked like the ocean on a stormy day, filled with growing worry, and her intense emotional turmoil was breaking through her remarkable control.

She was looking more and more wounded as his silence lengthened, and her aura spiked with the suffocating malevolence of the darkness her body contained. Her eyes were deepening into those terrible voids of black when suddenly he found his body moving as he closed the space between them with a tentative stride forward. His hands found her shoulders as he bent down, gently touching his forehead to hers, staring into her huge eyes.

"Don't you dare, Kagome," he whispered. "Don't you dare lose yourself." His warmth and his smell were intoxicating. His eyes were ablaze with the intensity of his emotions, his aura washing over her in calming waves. As the darkness receded, her aura came bubbling up from within her to meet his power, crackling over his skin.

"Control yourself, seal this evil, and survive. That is how you earn your armor." His eyes closed, and for a fraction of a second, she thought she saw him smile again, but then the moment was over. His eyes were instantly hard and icy, and he turned and walked away without a word leaving her dumbfounded.

She almost forgot how to breathe she was so dazed, but one question permeated through the chaos that was her mind.

'Did…did he just nuzzle me?'

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**MUAHAHA. I love mood swings. PLEASE RATE & REVIEW!**


	11. Nightmares of the Damned

**BAM. Here come's a cliffhanger. Shorter chapter, I freaked myself out with the *******CLASSIFIED INFORMATION... PLEASE HOLD******* and so the *****PLEASE HOLD****** and then the **********PLEASE HOLD********* and I really don't think I'll sleep with that mental image. Freaky. **

**Thank you so much for the reviews, guys. It really means a lot to me. Criticism is always welcome too as long as I am getting feedback. (:  
**

**It's late, I'm tired. ****Rate & Review!**

**Till next time,**

**Emmy**

* * *

It was dark, and it was cold. She shivered despite the warmth of the blanket that enveloped her in a cloud of reassurance and safety. Still, unease tugged at her mind. Chills danced down her spine, and she couldn't shake the nauseating feeling that something was watching her.

Her imagination provided a slideshow of demons and creatures that could be stalking the darkness, monsters that existed only in fairy tales. She pulled the comforter tighter around herself and lay still, listening for any form of movement. The soft crackle of a burning fire slowly soothed her frayed nerves.

"Look at this, you're being ridiculous." Willing herself to feel annoyed at her own immaturity, she opened her eyes and looked around. The darkness was almost complete, the moon barely a sliver and casting hardly any light on her camp, but the shapes and the familiar outlines of the trees all seemed to be in order. She sighed and rubbed her eyes, pulling her knees to her chest and resting her head on her hands.

The dancing of the fire sent the shadows twitching and reeling in an awful demonic frenzy. She watched them, horrified as they took on a new dimension of reality. They looked alive. Clawed hands grasped at nothingness and their gaping mouths locked in silent screams. Kagome sat frozen, her entire body trembling with the silent tears that poured down her face.

The shadows shrieked as they danced with the fire, surging forward as it waned and drawing back when the tongues of flame leapt upwards.

She could hear them. She could hear them screaming.

The agony as they were burned into nothingness by the firelight and the hiss as they slowly crawled back, reclaiming the darkness as their own; she could hear it all. Her flesh grew cold, and goose bumps erupted on her arms and legs as an angry wind rustled the branches of the trees above her. She pulled the blanket over her head and held completely still, trying to calm herself down. The shadows hissed and the trees still seemed to whisper. She froze, listening hard, praying it was her mind playing tricks on her. She silenced her sobbing and her shaking in the effort to hear, though her heart pounded wildly in her ears.

"Kagome," a frighteningly familiar voice whispered softly, as if someone was calling her from a distance. Her blood ran cold, and she couldn't hold back a desperate sob.

"Kagome," the raspy growl called again, louder this time and more insistent. The shadows cackled in agonized humor with a hundred voices that all sounded familiar. Her heart ached with the effort of maintaining its desperate sprint, feeling as if it would surely explode. The revolting smell of rotting flesh reached her nose and she choked on her breathe. She gagged, and threw the comforter off her head and gasped in a breath, but the air was far more potent without the filter of the blanket.

She retched and fumbled blindly for an escape away from the campsite. To her horror, a horribly disfigured, grinning face stared back at her from the darkness. Its flesh was rotting off its very bones and jagged yellow claws scraped at the air in front of it, as if it was trying to find her skin. She threw off the blanket and sprinted in the opposite direction. If she could escape the campsite, she could escape from the face looming in the darkness.

In a split second, just before she reached the safety of the darkness on the other side of camp, the deep rumble of laughter she'd heard in her head so many times made heart skip a beat and stop dead in her tracks. Nearly frozen with fear, she turned towards the creature, and screamed when she saw it take a few shuttering steps towards her. She sprinted for the edge of camp and crashed headlong into a barrier of seething black power. She clawed at it, desperately trying to find a weak point, but quickly recoiled. A slimy substance was oozing down across the barrier that did not yield no matter where she pushed. There was no way out.

The shadows screaming had died down to low moans, and it took all her will power to look over and watch them slide over to the barrier and reach upward. It took her a minute to realize it was the gooey substance that they wanted. She glanced down at her hands and found they were dark with the liquid.

Blood.

She doubled over and vomited. She heard the creature's deep stutter of laughter again between its heavy, labored breathing.

She knew it was watching her, stalking her, waiting to strike. She felt nauseous, but there was no hope of escape. Back against the barrier, she turned to face the creature, but defense was not an option. When she tried to summon her power to protect her, nothing happened. It sprang into action and a scream pierced her ears as her legs buckled under the combined forces of the creature's weight and agony that ripped through her body. A burning pain in her shoulders spread through her as the creature sunk its claws into her skin and dragged them down her chest. She felt warm streams of blood drip down her body and seep into the grass as the creature sank its claws deeper into her shoulders.

"You thought you could control me? Foolish girl. I will rip. I will tear. I will break you and then be free." Its rancid breath was ice cold, chilling her to the bone.

Her world went white as agony seared through her. It leaned closer, yellowing bloody fangs dripping saliva onto her as it whispered, "It's time to die, miko wench." and all ability to struggle left her limbs and the cold was complete. She could feel her bones breaking beneath its seething, venomous grip, but all she could do was scream again and again, but the louder she cried out, the tighter it held her.

With a forceful lunge, it clamped its jaws on her throat and she heard the tearing of her own flesh. She couldn't scream. It came out as a pathetic gurgle, as blood flooded her lungs. The creature backed off of its bite and let out a chilling and triumphant screech. It dropped her and let her collapse on the floor, but it continued watching her.

Blood gushed from her wounds, but her pain was silenced by the cold that crept up from her toes and spread through her. The shadows gathered around her limp body, tearing at her wounds and drinking her blood. Kagome fought against unconsciousness, and brought her eyes up to meet the creatures burning black gaze, filled with pure hatred and sadistic amusement at the agony of the girl before it. She opened her mouth to speak, but her trachea collapsed and she gagged against a mouthful of blood. With an insidious grin, it turned and vanished, as the shadows closed in on her.

And then there was nothing but darkness.

* * *

**WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SO PISSED ABOUT?**

'YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID!'

**I COMFORTED HER!**

'YOU NUZZLED HER. WHY THE HELL DID YOU THINK THAT WOULD BE AN APPROPRIATE THING TO DO?'

His demon whimpered a little, backing down.

**I don't know. She just looked so sad. I just wanted her to be happy again, that's all.**

'AND YOU DECIDE TO DO SO BY NUZZLING HER?'

**She looked a little happier.**

'She looked TERRIFIED.'

**BECAUSE YOU'RE ALWAYS AN ASSHOLE. She probably thought you were going to EAT her.**

Sesshomaru bit back an infuriated snarl and took a deep breathe. He sat leaned against a magnificent willow tree where they had made camp, the young girl sleeping a few meters away buried in a blanket.

They had traveled in silence for the rest of the day after their 'moment', stopping only when Sesshomaru snatched a rabbit from its hiding place among the shrubbery they were passing. She made a fire and roasted it, scarfing the entire thing down and picking the bones clean. Food made her look remarkably healthier, some of the color returning to her face as they put the fire out and moved on. He led the way for the majority of the day, while she lagged behind. He wasn't sure if she was avoiding making eye contact with him or if she was just too tired to match his pace.

They camp early that evening. The girl was exhausted thought she hadn't complained, and when he sat down in the first spot he deemed fit for a camp, she did not say a word. She merely grabbed her blanket and collapsed under it in a heap. Soon after, he heard her breathing settle into a rhythmic sleeping pattern, and he turned his absolutely livid attention to his demon.

'I have no words for you, pup. This will cost us dearly.'

**What could possibly be so horrible about one simple nuzzle?**

Sesshomaru growled low in response as the chains of subduing power once again began to wind around his demon.

**Sometimes demons need hugs too you know.**

The demon yipped huffily before being silenced once again. Sesshomaru stood, needing desperately to kill something, but no demons were within the surrounding area. He settled on deciding to slaughter whatever grazing animal he happened to chance upon first to feed his companion when she woke the next morning. His silver hair stirred in the breeze as he sniffed the air for the musky scent of animal flesh, and then disappeared in a soundless blur of white.

Hunting for carnivores was more fun. They at least had claws. The deer he took down was dead before she even processed the danger. The others scattered in a flurry of white tails and bounding legs. He watched them, considering ripping each one apart while they tried so desperately to escape from him, but there would be no point. It was his demon he wanted to strangle, or something with more fight in it. Eliminating the panicked deer would not even be considered exercise in his mind.

He snarled at their retreating tails, and turned back to his kill. The blood seeping from her neck smelled grassy and thin.

'Carnivores taste better too.' He though irritably. His ears twitched, searching for sound, but he couldn't hear anything. The usual hums and rustles of the woods around him had abruptly been hushed, putting him instantly on edge. He picked up the deer and slung it over his shoulder, cautiously heading back towards the camp. His golden eyes searched the trees for any disturbances, but nothing seemed amiss.

Then a catastrophic wave of immensely menacing power smashed into him, assaulting his every sense amplified by an ear-shattering scream.

Something was extremely wrong.

* * *

**Oh, and also... LoveInTheBattleField... I can't tell if you like this story and would like me to continue or if you are entirely unsure and haven't the slightest idea of what to make of it yet. Enlighten me if you would be so kind, please. It's been buggin' me lately not knowing. **

**Alright, bedtime for me.**

**Hope you enjoyed. ;)**


	12. You Belong to Me

**Chapter 12! Yaaay! I LOVE this chapter, and I'm really excited to know what you guys think of it. **

**Thank you to everyone following and reviewing this story, it means the world to me. ****You're the best!**

**-Emmy**

* * *

Sango lay on her side facing the fire, the dancing flames accentuating the curves of her body. She was still sore everywhere, feeling like something had run over her, trampled her, and then left her to die. Inuyasha sat close beside her, monitoring her shaky condition.

She was not healing normally, and it was taking far too long to get to Kaede's. His golden eyes glowed in the firelight, as he relaxed enough in her presence to be mesmerized by the flames. She looked up to his faraway gaze, feeling lost and tangled in her emotions.

"Inuyasha," she whispered. He paused for a moment then turned his burning gaze to her. "What are you thinking?"

He heaved a sigh and pulled his knees toward his chest in a defensive position. Sango frowned. Even in her vulnerable, painful state she knew when he was about to lie to her.

"Nothing. I'm fine." He muttered, turning his head so he didn't have to look at her. She snorted, displaying her disbelief. She had come to the conclusion that hiding anything did not gain her anything with him. The only way to communicate was to be blunt. He needed things to be spelled out for him.

"You sure about that?" She asked, giving him a second chance to tell her the truth. He didn't take the bait. He turned his irritated gaze to her, his eyes a molten pool of amber.

"GIVE IT A BREAK, SANGO. I'm fine." He snapped at her, almost bearing his fangs.

He was extremely agitated, and she didn't know how to handle it. Kagome had always controlled the really huge problems with Inuyasha, and she had just stayed back and watched with Miroku. Kagome had been the one to understand the hanyo best. Without her, Sango handled his fits as best she could.

She pushed herself off the ground, supporting herself on one arm. With a fierce gaze, she held him in place.

"Don't lie to me, Inuyasha. I know you better than that. Don't pretend I don't know what's going on. I want you to trust me, and I want to trust you." This time, he was the one that snorted in exasperation.

"Relax, Sango. Just go to sleep. You need to rest." She sighed, and lowered herself back down to the ground. Her energy quickly depleted and she found herself exhausted most of the time.

The barrier Kagome erected had not only sucked the energy out of her, but it had changed her perspective on things. Things that use to be a simple argument changed into a fight that was relationship changing. The black energy made her think differently about the people around her. She wanted to trust Inuyasha, but there was a new nagging voice in the back of her head that had made it extremely difficult to believe anything that he said. She fought it with every ounce of energy she had.

"Inuyasha, I know you. What Kagome has become is killing you. What she did to both of us. I know you are trying to figure out what to do, but you can't do this on your own. Let me help you, please." Sango begged, looking for a way to get through to Inuyasha through the ice he had erected around himself. He looked at her with his eyes full of pain.

"Sango, just go to sleep." She felt tears welling within her eyes.

"Inuyasha, if you don't trust me, then who can we depend on. I need you. And you need me. Remember who you're friends are. Please don't push me away. I don't think I could handle losing someone else." She rose to her hands and knees, crawling over to him and placing her head in his lap. "You're all I have left," she whispered brokenly.

"Sango…" he watched her for a moment, speechless. Her brown eyes met his, sad and vulnerable.

"Inuyasha, please don't leave me." His heart constricted, feeling like he suddenly couldn't breathe. She looked so miserable and betrayed, like one more thing rested upon her heavy heart would break her in half, the words came to his lips before he could think about what he was promising.

"Never, Sango. Never." He whispered, putting a hand on her shoulder. A ghost of a smile crossed her lips before her eyes fluttered closed. He watched her as her breathing evened out and her body relaxed with sleep. She looked so innocent and peaceful, he almost drifted off himself, but soon the gut wrenching treachery he felt deep in his stomach returned and he found his eyes wide open. Thoughts and plans and images whirred through his mind like a puzzle he had to piece together.

'Kagome, I need to save her. I need to protect her. I need to KILL her. NO, I need to save her. I LOVED her. I HATE HER.' His thoughts were such a tangle he couldn't make any sense of them. 'And Sango, I have to leave her when we reach Kaede's. I must continue on. Alone. To kill. I must. Alone. But without… I don't…'

Half of him wanted to rip Kagome to pieces for the suffering she had caused and on the other half he wanted to just half her back, happy and quirky; the Kagome he had loved. But deep in his heart somewhere, he knew the second option wasn't possible. The old Kagome was dead, and this monster in her body masquerading as the girl he loved needed to be eliminated.

The second battle raging within him was whether to leave Sango behind or not. If he brought her he risked losing her life, knowing how strong Kagome had been. But if he left without her knowledge, he would risk losing her friendship. His thoughts were a constant, obnoxious buzzing within his head.

Sango rolled over and took a fistful of his haiori and clung to it. She opened her big brown eyes, shocking him that she wasn't asleep and met his gaze with an intensity that matched the turbulent emotions within his head.

"Inuyasha?" She asked her voice soft but firm.

"What is it, Sango?" He replied, trying not to let his confusion show. She rubbed her eyes, and looked up at him.

"We need to kill, Kagome. It's the only way to save her." She said steadily, her mind made up, but tears glistened on her eyelashes. Thoughts raced through his head for a moment before it settled on one that screamed through all the others, and he knew that was the only thing they could do to help her. The only way they could stop her from destroying everything.

"You're right. Kagome has to die."

* * *

Flying through the trees towards her, her aura became more and more sickening as he closed the distance between them. Before even reaching the campsite, a ball of sizzling black energy came screaming towards him.

Veering left and charging forward again, the second ball racing close after the first nearly caught him square in the chest. He leapt over it, two more orbs of vicious energy following him in his accent. Finding purchase against the trunk of a massive tree, he ricocheted off just as another attack splintered the ancient wood where he had stood not but seconds before.

Airborne above the trees, he had a clear view of the girl as she flung three more towards him cackling and grinning with horrific glee. Dropping back into the trees, he launched himself forward, bursting through the leaves into the clearing.

"Oh, Sesshomaru-sama," her voice was sickly sweet, a glowing orb of energy resting in her palm "I've been waiting for you."

She hurled the black energy at him, and without a second thought, he drew Tokijin to deflect the attack. He braced himself for the impact on the sword but rather than slicing the ball of energy in half, it stopped dead in front of Tokijin. She made a hissing sound that he realized was laughter.

"Goshinki," she called, her voice and that name giving him chills. Tokijin pulsed madly in his hand.

"Goshinki, come play with me. Come kill with me. Be my sword; be my power," she growled, as black tendrils of her aura reached out and began swirling around his sword. Sesshomaru tried to rip the sword away from the cloud of power it was slowly absorbing, but it did not move. It was pulsating so fiercely, it almost became painful to hold. Her black eyes slid thickly in their sockets to rest on his face, and she bared fanged teeth at him.

"You are in my way." She spoke slowly and venomously, launching another wave of attacks at him. He was forced to abandon the sword and evade the power careening towards him. Sesshomaru snarled at her, as the last attack hissed by his shoulder. Tokijin floated towards her, as her power crackled across its length.

"Ah, so you recognize me, Goshinki. Remember who truly created you. I am darkness. I am pain. I am Naraku and everything he strived to become. You were my reincarnation, born from my own body, and therefore you were my creation. Your power is my power and you, and this fang of yours, belongs to me."

The hilt of the sword came to rest in her clawed hand, and her lips split into a terrifying grin. She swung it in a slow wide ark, watching her black power trail after it.

Sesshomaru watched, wide eyed and seething. His sword had betrayed him again, and now rested in the hand of that damn girl. But what had really made him mad was the feeling of vulnerability permeating his mind. With Tokijin glowing happily in her hand, and nothing but a sword that could not cut at his hip he was left with nothing but his fangs, his claws, and his transformation.

'I should have seen this coming. A sword forged from Naraku's reincarnation's fang would of course remain loyal to the one that had given it life.'

She met his gaze again, her grin getting wider.

"Aw, Sesshomaru. Are you mad I took your sword? Well, technically, I'm the rightful owner, so I really just reclaimed it." Tokijin pulsed in agreement. Her giggle sounded like breaking glass, grating on his ears.

'There's no other option, I must get her to Mount Hakurei before she destroys everything.' She must have noticed the determined expression on his face, because her eyes gleamed sadistically.

"Look at this, Goshinki, I think he wants to fight! Looks like you'll get to taste his blood again. I know how much you enjoyed it the first time." She licked her lips, "and maybe I will too." She sneered, raised the sword and charged at him. She was faster that she had been as a human, but there was absolutely no way she could keep up with Sesshomaru. He dodged, appearing as only a blur of white before he was halfway across the field. She turned and chased after him, slicing nothing but air each time, as each dodge and parrying attack lead her closer to the mountain.

But Hakurei was still miles and miles away, and Kagome was already getting frustrated with his evasive maneuvers. She growled, and heaved a ball of sizzling energy towards him, charging after it with sword raised.

"QUIT DODGING AND FIGHT ME!" She snapped, coming closer to his skin than she had before. He had to make a move, and it had to be now. She stopped chasing him, raising the sword over her head. A familiar surge of power made his eyes widen and the tingle of power raise goose bumps on his skin.

'Dragon Strike…" The usual blue aura that surrounded the blade when he summoned the attack was a deep violet, almost black. She swung the sword over her head, the aura condensing and the head of the dragon appeared at the tip of her sword, elongating. He realized he had no other choice.

He disappeared in a blur of white, and she looked around confused. Before she knew what hit her, his arm wrapped around her, and her head snapped forward with the sudden burst of speed. The Dragon Strike's aura dissipated. He interrupted it fast enough for it to be left behind on the wind. She spat out a string of curses, but they were ripped away by the swirling wind.

Caught off guard, she remained still in his grasp for a moment, but she soon regained her bearings. She began to struggle against him, thrashing and trying to get her arm free to stab him, but his iron grip on her didn't falter. He felt the ball of power forming in her palm with the change in her energy, but she was desperate and didn't think. As it left her palm it grazed her leg instead of him and she hissed in agony.

Her fangs sunk into his arm and he resisted the urge to throw her to the ground. Speeding over the earth, dropping her now would break a sufficient number of her bones.

'A few more minutes…' he thought, seeing the peak of the mountain rise over the tress. Her claws found the skin of his chest and he snarled, losing his grip on her before pulling her back against him. When she slipped, she pulled the arm holding Tokijin free, slicing his side open.

His grip slipped as he let out a roar of pain. They tumbled to the earth, her body hitting hard, but he was able to twist midair and slide backwards, regaining his balance. He slid to a stop and collapsed to his knee, letting out a infuriated snarl. She lay bloody on the ground, but pushed herself up and grinned at him.

"That was fun, Sesshomaru-sama. But I'll teach you never to do it again." Her voice rose into a howll with the last few words.

She rose to her feet, raising Tokijin above her head as the black violet aura of Dragon Strike swirled around the sword once more. He tried to stand, to get out of the way of the impending attack, but his body didn't respond. The dragon's head arced into the air , diving back down and twisting around its body before lunging towards Sesshomaru in a whirl of malicious, livid power. She spoke with a vicious triumph before the scream of the dragon drowned out her words.

"Prepare to die, Sesshomaru."

* * *

**Sorry about the cliffy! Hope you liked it though. (: **

**Rate&&Review!**


	13. Contagion

The gaping maw of the dark violet dragon drew closer, screaming in an unearthly, horrifying way. The immensity of her power wiped the stoic mask from his face, shock holding him immobile and time seemed to slow down. If this attack stayed on course and hit him with all her power, he was positive that she was right.

He was going to die.

His mind urged his muscles to move, but they stayed stone still, pain coursing through him where her sword bit his flesh. He watched the dragon rage towards him in slow motion and then looked down to his side. A dark, sickly aura emanated from his wound left by the pollution of Tokijin's power. It was seeping into him, coursing through him. His thoughts grew darker and a whisper soft voice in the back of his head took up a disturbing chant.

'Stay. Wait. Die. Stay. Wait. Die.' He shook his head to clear his mind, trying to stand again. His muscles still didn't respond. The paralyzing darkness and rhythmic chanting in his head were muddling his senses. The chanting became faster, more frantic as the dragon drew closer.

'Get up.' Sesshomaru told himself, letting out a ferocious snarl. He managed to raise one knee and plant a foot on the ground. He struggled to force himself to stand, his concentration breaking easily with the howling chanting in his head. He looked up and realized he could see individual scales on the dragon, and knew there was no time to evade the attack.

A sudden surge of purity around him set his skin to tingling and his wound to burning like a fire was set beneath his ribs. He searched for a source of the power, but it seemed to come from everywhere. Then he noticed the pink power crackled across the nose of the dragon, spreading down its body as it drew closer. The attack was slowing down, as if repelled by an invisible force.

'This must be the power of Mount Hakurei… but from so far away…' Despite being slowed down, the dragon still thundered towards him. A determined fire lit behind the demon lord's eyes.

'Move, Sesshomaru. MOVE.' He snarled at himself, and with the clarity brought by the white hot pain of the pure energy, he finally urged his body into motion.

It was like time caught up to speed with the agony that seared through his side. Blood gushed from the wound as he leapt backwards, spinning in midair and landing in a sprint. His eyes locked on the peak of the mountain visible over the trees, as he raced towards it. He gritted his teeth as pain coursed through him with every step, but the chanting was fading as the fire raging in his ribs became an inferno.

His pace slowed, sending a trill of anxiety through him before he noticed the dragon was slowing to a grinding halt behind him. Pure power crackled over its entire length as the mountain itself denied entrance to something so gruesomely tainted. He stopped, unable to run any farther as blood spattered the ground leaving a crimson trail, and turned to watch the creature storm towards him.

His heart dropped in the fleeting moment that he thought the gargantuan approach of power could not be stopped, but a fresh surge of purity hit the dark dragon like a tidal wave, stopping it in its flight.

Finally unable to permeate any closer to the mountain, the dragon gave one final scream before lurching upwards, and then nose diving into the earth with a cataclysmic explosion. The shockwave threw Sesshomaru to the ground, deafening him for a moment as the blast echoed through his head, but he knew he didn't have time to wait for it to return.

'Stand up.' His body didn't respond. His eyes deepened to a dark red, sending the pure energy around him into a scorching frenzy. 'GET UP.'

Using his last burst of adrenaline and energy, he forced himself to his feet and closed the distance between himself and the shocked girl. She was hissing angrily and lashed out at him with claws and sword, but he was too fast. He scooped her up brutally and pinned her to his chest, taking off towards the mountain, leaving a crimson trail in their wake.

Tokijin was still gripped in her hand, but the huge surge of power had exhausted its reserves, and he knew another attack of that magnitude was not possible for a while. He had to get her as close to the mountain as possible before the wound to his side allowed her to escape and wreak further havoc. They were just a shadow of silver, black and crimson racing through the trees. His blood oozed down his side and leg, a new wave with every leaping stride he took.

Growing closer, Kagome became more and more violent as the pure power began blistering and burning over her skin. She snarled at him, bearing her fangs and struggling to get free. The sickly reddish iris of her eyes contracted with mounting pain as they drew closer and closer to the barrier. And then she started screaming.

"LET GO OF ME. LET ME GO! IT BURNS! LET ME GO!" Her voice became a higher and higher shriek as the pure power intensified with every step. The areas of his body in contact with her burned like they were on fire, the rest of him just feeling incredibly unpleasant. His eyes blazed a bright crimson as he felt the last of his power draining from him.

She had stopped forming words, the screams of agony ripping from her mouth as she squirmed and thrashed in his grip were almost as painful as contact with her. With one more massive leap they burst into a clearing, the barrier finally visible and the lush greenery of the foot of Mount Hakurei cushioned their fall as Sesshomaru's legs gave out, dumping them both unceremoniously among the long grass and flowers.

He lay there panting, golden eyes bright with pain and his silver hair fanned out underneath him as he listened to her scream. The pure power crackled across his skin, trying to suppress his demonic blood and trying to burn out whatever energy her sword had left within him. The chanting had stopped, but the spread of her power disturbed him.

'Clearly her energy is contagious. It must be purified, or the contaminated person will suffer the effects of her curse, having it eat away at them like it's eating away at her.' He snorted, and almost hissed in pain.

Each breath was a struggle, his ribs expanding and his torn skin screaming in protest, but it was nothing compared to what she was experiencing. He raised his arm and examined it, the area still burning from where she had touched him. It felt like cherry hot metal had been pressed against his skin and held there, but it showed no outward signs of damage.

'Her entire body must feel like this.' Despite himself, he felt a pang of empathy for the girl's agony. He turned his head to look at her, but a curtain of tall grass was blocking his view. He reached out to move it with his uninjured arm, but paused, not entirely sure if he wanted to see her like that. He started to pull his hand back and close his eyes when an ear splitting howl rang through his ears and he ripped back the grass.

Her head was thrown back in an earth shattering scream, her eyes closed tight. Her back arched off the ground and power hissed over her body. She had scratches everywhere from what must have been the fall she took when she wounded him. Large yellow black bruises were already blossoming in large patches across her skin.

She dug her fingers into the ground and clawed at it, as a surge of the mountains purity washed over her. She collapsed against the ground panting hard, tears leaking from her closed eyes. Her aura, while still troubled and turbulent, had been drained of the malice. The monsters within her were retreating to some deep, dark part of her soul where they could hide.

"Sess…Sesshomaru-sama." She whispered, her voice cracked from screaming.

"What is it?" He examined her, noticing she still had her fangs and claws. She opened her eyes and looked at him, and his breath caught in his chest. Her eyes were an intense azure, sparkling with her tears and wild with her pain.

"Don't let it…take me. Don't let me go back to that place." Tears spilled over her eyelashes and she whimpered; "I don't want to be alone." He was silent for a second, lost in her eyes but then he looked away.

"Sometimes in order to learn to control yourself, you must be alone, Kagome." He said with an edge to his voice, but he wasn't unkind. "But you will not have to forfeit your body over to it again. I promise you that." The corners of her mouth turned up with the ghost of an exhausted smile. She shakily reached out and touched his arm, but he recoiled with a snarl, ripping open the wound that had just stopped bleeding.

"Fool," he snarled through clenched teeth. She jumped at his sudden anger, surprise melting into irritation.

"Oh…I'm sorry. Am I not supposed to touch you? Apparently you didn't get the memo when you cuddled me and then dragged me halfway across the damn country and dumped me here in this hell." The pure power crackled across her as her resentment called forth the dark aura once more. A wave of pain washed over her, her hands digging into the earth once more. She took a deep, ragged breath trying to calm herself.

"Control your anger, girl. Your aura and your power are spread by contact. The wound you delivered to me with Tokijin was seeping with your power before it was burned away by the Mountain's barrier." Her sapphire eyes grew wide with guilt.

"I…I hurt you?" Her face darkened with agony as she pushed herself up and struggled over to him. She gasped when she saw the vicious gash on his side. A deep rumbling growl emanated from his chest, half to calm her and half to warn her wayward hands from touching him again. "Sesshomaru…I'm so sorry. I thought I would never be able to even scratch you. I don't even remember…" A look of horror crossed her face and her hand slapped against her mouth.

"Sango…Inuyasha. I attacked them both. If my power is contagious they must have some of this thing inside of them too. WE HAVE TO GO BACK. WE HAVE TO GET THEM." She started to struggle to get to her feet, the pure power in a frenzy around her as her aura reflected the burning guilt ripping her apart. His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her back down to the ground. He hissed as her skin burned his flesh, but did not let go.

"Enough, girl," his deep voice stopping her in her tracks. "It will be fine. You cannot help anyone until that power is sealed. We will find them, but not yet. You must rest now. Tomorrow we will cross the barrier, and if you think the pain is bad now, wait until we are inside of it." Tears welled in her eyes again as her body slumped with exhaustion and grief.

"I'm so sorry. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I…" She broke off with a ragged sob. A low rumble emanated from deep in his chest, as he pulled her down, trying to calm her into sleep.

"Tomorrow, girl. Tomorrow we will fix everything. For now, do not think. Just sleep." She sniffled, curling up into a miserable ball as she reined in her emotions. The power around her slowly became less turbulent, and her azure eyes slid closed. She sighed as exhaustion took her and her bruised body relaxed.

He examined his burning hand from where he had grabbed her, and wondered once more how he had ended up on this insane journey before closing his own eyes and darkness took him.

When he awoke the next morning, she was gone.

* * *

**So you have absolutely no idea how hard it was to resist the urge to have Sesshomaru burst out into Saosin at Kagome. "YOU'RE NOT ALONEEEEEEEEE, THERE'S MORE TO THIS I KNOWWWWW. YOU CAN MAKE IT OUUUUUUT. YOU WILL LIVE TO TEEEEEELLLL." **

**Yep. That almost just happened.**

**Thanks to all my readers and reviewers, you guys inspire me. Till next time! ;)**


	14. What You Cherished

Tokijin lay abandoned in the grass and her scent lead in all directions; entering the trees, hiking along either side of the mountain, and every direction in between. She had spent a significant amount of time leaving false trails and trying to confuse him.

He snarled and picked up the discarded sword, but black power welled up around the handle and hissed against his skin. It had found a new master. His anger mounting, he sheathed the sword at his hip where it pulsed unhappily. He searched for the most recent scent, but the smell of her was everywhere making the trails intertwine and almost indistinguishable from each other.

He first chose the path leading the way they'd come, assuming she'd had enough with feeling like her body was on fire and tried to escape. There was blood on the leaves of low branches, solidifying his theory until the trail abruptly ended. He searched for her scent, trying nearby trees for traces, but there was nothing. He cursed himself for giving her those boots, which were designed to not leave even the faintest footprint when worn by someone who knew how to walk stealthily.

He glared at the end of the trail, before following it back to the two sections of padded down grass where the two had slept. The next path he chose wound around the edge of the mountain for a ways before it too ended. His golden eyes were the only things expressing his mounting fury. He didn't even bother to search for a continuation of the trail, just whipped around and started over. Two more trails yielded the same fruitless conclusions, the purity around him buzzing as his rage called forth his demonic blood.

'I will wring her neck when I find her, sealed power or not,' he promised himself.

When he returned again, he scrutinized the remaining paths carefully. A few of them meandered off aimlessly, and he immediately decided against them until he took a closer sniff at one. It was the faintest of all of them leading in a straight line towards the barrier. The tall grass that had parted to let her through hardly even looked disturbed compared to the other trails. Satisfaction coursed through him, knowing this was the real one; the others had stronger scents haven been traversed twice.

This one had only been navigated once.

He knew she couldn't have moved very fast with the way the barrier affected her, and having wasted so much time walking in circles, she definitely had not gotten far. He sauntered after her, taking his time and giving his body time to adjust to the power grating against him with every step. This trail did not end, deepening his satisfaction, but soon it was clear something was amiss. The closer he got to the mountain, the stranger the power emanating from it felt.

It seemed to be coming in intermittent surges, sizzling over his skin, and sending the dull ache of his side into a fiery torment before once again subsiding. It was becoming increasingly annoying, and he moved faster towards the source of the sweet, metallic scent of the girl's blood. His acute hearing picked up a small cry coming from ahead as another, larger wave of power swept over him. He gritted his teeth and pressed forward with a bust of speed that nearly sapped all his strength from him this close to the barrier.

'Not only does the damn thing burn me, but it weakens me too.' He seriously considered destroying the damn thing and leaving her to do as she pleased, but something kept him moving forward.

Her scent was becoming more and more potent until he found her among the tall grass. She lay a few feet from the barrier, scooting closer on her back every few minutes. With every move she made the barrier hissed in protest, surging over her in pure retaliation, forcing her to stop to let the pain subside before inching closer again. Her chest was heaving, probably from that last wave of power he felt and sweat glistened on her forehead. Her azure eyes opened, looking slightly delirious and she half grinned half grimaced at him.

"Oh hey. Fancy meeting you here." She panted, raising her knees to push herself closer.

"Stupid girl." He growled, still angry that she led him in circles. She let out a breathy laugh that became a whimper as she propelled herself closer with her legs. The barrier's power hissed around her furiously. He watched her agony with a satisfied smirk on his face. As it waned, the half-smile returned to her face utterly confusing him.

"Guess you're angry, huh?" She gasped, turning her head to peer at his side. "My present to you looks better today. Now we match." She giggled frenetically, lifting her hand and letting it flop against her chest.

"You're insane. In this condition how did you possibly judge yourself fit to be unsupervised?"

"I knew you could find me." Her breathing was starting to slow down, but her eyes glowed with a strange elation he couldn't understand.

"Then what was the use in attempting to mislead me?" She laughed again, raising her knees and readying herself for another wave of pain.

"I wanted to see how far you'd go to follow me." She smirked, launching herself backwards. She slid farther than she had before and shrieked as a huge wave of power rolled over her. Sesshomaru's knees almost buckled underneath him at the strength of the upsurge.

"Fuck this thing." She hissed through clenched teeth, only inches from the barrier. It took longer for the glow of euphoria to return to her face, the pain causing a sickly pallor to cover her cheeks. Her eyes met his. "Why did you follow me?" She examined his face for any hints of his reasoning and then met his molten gaze steadily, waiting for an answer.

"I made you a blood bound promise. 'A life for a life.' I intend to keep it." She grinned.

"Ah. And here I thought you were worried about my wellbeing. How foolish of me." She smirked at him wickedly with a teasing glint in her eyes.

He glared at her, resisting the urge to growl and analyzed the barrier for a moment before crossing it in a few long strides. It felt like walking through a waterfall so cold that it burned while being dipped in acid with a thousand tiny cuts. The instant subduing of his youkai blood took all the strength from him and he half sat, half collapsed on the other side, trying to make it look like he was simply waiting for her. His body felt like molten lead, lighting his blood on fire but he made no complaint.

She titled her head backwards so she could look at him with a sneer of satisfaction.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" She cackled, throwing herself backwards again. He remained silent with stone cold eyes as he watched her slowly work her way through the barrier, each scream and flush of rapture becoming subsequently louder and more apparent. With one final, weak shove she made it through, curling up into a ball on her side, facing him and hyperventilating.

"God this shit is worse than miasma." He agreed, but he made no motion to let her know that. His silence made her look up at him. "So you gunna tell me why that comment pissed you off? Don't deny it; I saw it in your face." He tried to contain his shock, but she noticed even the slightest change in his eyes.

"And there, you were surprised I knew I pissed you off. And now you're angry. It's so much easier to read you now." She giggled, and he stared at her, trying to see a change in the deep pools of blue other than the color and the feverish delight making her look mildly demented.

Irritation spiked through him as he realized she must have been gradually learning to do this for some time now as her eyesight improved. It only mounted when he realized she was still waiting for an explanation for her question, and he didn't have one.

"This Sesshomaru does not have to explain himself to you, girl." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, were back to that, are we? Let's get two things straight. Speaking in third person is not attractive, and my name is Kagome. KA-GO-ME. You've used it before; I know you can say it. So say it with me. KA-GO…oh now you're REALLY mad." Her eyes were glinting with a playful mischievousness. He was ready to fulfill his promise of wringing her neck when he remembered how agonizingly slow and heavy his body felt. Clenching his fists he decided it was time to get answers from her.

"Are you delirious? Why are you so happy when you're in so much pain?"

"Because it feels so GOOD." She almost purred at him. He couldn't help it. He arched an eyebrow and gave her a disturbed look.

"Excuse me?"

"No, I mean…well I don't know what I mean. But when I first left the place where we sort of crash landed, the pain was so bad I was leaving. That trail wasn't meant to confuse you. I was really trying to get out of this god awful place. But every step made it grow stronger, and I knew I didn't have a choice. All the other trails were meant to confuse you, but I was just trying to give myself more time to get under control so I wouldn't freak out and hurt you again." A flicker of sadness and regret crossed her face. "I thought if I got closer to the mountain, the more control I'd have, or at least the more pain I'd be in, so I literally couldn't hurt you."

"Do not think so highly of yourself, girl. This is merely an inconvenience. Do not presume to think you could severely damage my person." She gave him a dubious look and raised an eyebrow. He stared at her in what he hoped was his most stoic, serious face, concentrating on not letting even the slightest hint of emotion get through. She still didn't buy it.

"Yeah. Whatever you say. Anyway, once I got close to the barrier I almost couldn't move with how bad it hurt, hence why you found me rolling around in the dirt. But after a while of doing that I noticed I felt a little more in control after every wave of pain. And then my hearing and my eyesight began to get better too. Well, it's been getting better this entire time, but noticeably better right now. It felt like my body was getting stronger, and for the first time since the last battle with Naraku, I felt clean. Not physically, I mean my soul. I don't feel like I'm a monster anymore. And it hurts like hell even now, but I can't even concentrate on that with how good it feels to have some quiet in my mind."

She rolled onto her back among the flowers of Mount Hakurei and stretched out, her raven hair fanned out underneath her. She heaved a huge sigh and closed her eyes, the dance of pink sparks across her body slowly disappearing as she relaxed. He stared at her in disbelief at the strength in the face of adversity this girl had shown.

Despite all the horrible things he had done to her, she risked herself to make sure that she could not harm him again. It disturbed her to know she had hurt him, even though they were nothing but traveling acquaintances, held together by a blood bond she had called for half mad to save his half-brother from herself. When she realized that the darkness within her could be spread, she would have gone charging after her friends to rescue them, even if that meant forfeiting her body to the creatures that lived inside of her again.

"You look like you're thinking about something." Her voice was soft and sleepy and she looked at him with hooded eyes. He met her gaze, but didn't speak. He felt like her peaceful azure pools were pulling him in, washing over him in calming waves. Suddenly, the purity of the barrier didn't grate against his aura so painfully. He traced the contours of her cheeks with his gaze, down the curve of her neck and across the slim frame garbed in his mother's battle kimono from long before she had met father, and in that moment, it seemed she belonged in it. The only thing missing was her armor.

His eyes returned to her face and she smiled drowsily, pushing herself up onto one arm.

"Let's seal this bitch up and go home." One side of his mouth curved in an involuntary, lopsided smile that he quickly tried to hide, but he knew she had seen. She didn't mention it, but that wicked glint sparkling in her sapphire eyes said enough. He took a clawed finger and put it on the curve of her stomach, right below her ribs.

"Concentrate your power here encircling everything evil and sealing it there." A softness had crept into his deep voice, and he felt a shiver run through her.

Her power welled up and washed over him in calm, warming ripples. Her eyes glowed with her energy as she bit her bottom lip in concentration. She tried again and again, her seal always breaking when she stopped concentrating on it, but each subsequent one formed stronger and held longer. He watched her, the wind whispering through her hair as she tried again without wavering or complaining, her eyes burning with an iron determination.

'I think I understand now, father. The strength of humans comes not from their bodies and their power. It comes from their hearts. That is what you cherished in them.'

* * *

**Hey thar. So this took a long time to write. And I apologize for that. I'm not sure why, I just wasn't really sure how far I wanted to take the fluff in this chapter. I think it's sufficiently fluffy, is it not? I should be updating sooner, cause I'm pretty clear on where i'm going with this next. **

**But anyway, I hope you enjoyed! Thank you so much to the people rating and reviewing and favoriting! You're the best. **

**Lemme know what you think of this chapter. (:**

**Emmy**


	15. Lightning, Rain and Blood

**Fucking love this chapter. Hope you do too. :D That's pretty much all I gotta say. **

**Rate and review and tell me what you think pleaseee, especially for this one. I really like it, but I wrote it in like 30 minutes, which is way too fast for me. So I'm really curious as to what you guys think.**

**I love you all for reading this! **

**-Em**

* * *

Kaede looked them both over head to toe with what she considered to be quick tender loving care, and what everyone else considered to be poking and prodding with rough, calloused fingers. She had only done a preliminary examination on them before deeming them healty, having so many patients to be tended to.

The story the villagers told was of a white blur that streaked across the sky, emanating shrieking laughter before black fire rained down and destroyed everything. It killed most instantly, burning women and children in their houses and those that had been touched by it directly had turned on best friends and neighbors before bursting into a black fire and escaped the fires, but had been weakened and injured by falling rubble and collapsing buildings.

Inuyasha and Sango knew instantly what had happened, and it had only solidified their resolve to destroy the two creatures that had caused so much pain.

Shippo scampered around among the injured, carrying bandages and medicinal herbs for Kaede and calling for the blood of whoever had done this. Neither Sango nor Inuyasha could find it within themselves to tell the little fox demon that his beloved Kagome was the one he said he wanted dead. It would ruin him.

He seemed to be coping better having people who needed him and something to keep him busy, but that night when the villagers had settled down in makeshift camps around the shrine, they heard the little kitsune softly cry himself to sleep.

It was the only night they spent in the town they use to think of as home. After a few hours of sleep, they woke, dressed, and gathered supplies. Neither of them spoke or slept much after the incident with Kagome.

After Sango had regained her strength, they took turns keeping watch as the other slept, and soon realized that both of them were plagued by vicious nightmares every time they closed their eyes. Staying up half the night became twice as torturous when listening to the other whimper and yell and thrash around. Soon, both would rather sit up and keep watch than dare fall into the darkness where creatures and memories crept, and neither of them wanted to speak about their dreams.

Sango shifted a pack onto her shoulders and glanced around the room. The fire burned low, casting dark shadows on the two sleeping bundles in the room.

"Should we say goodbye?" She whispered, her chocolate eyes hard and sad. Inuyasha looked to the little fox kit and the shrine miko, a dark melancholy creeping into his face.

"No. We will have to tell him we can't take him again, and I'm sick of saying goodbye." He whispered back, his voice rough from sleep. He turned and walked silently out of the shrine and into the chilly early morning. The sun still hadn't risen, and dew dampened their legs and feet. The smell of sickness and blood woke them fully, and set Sango's stomach to churning. She looked to Inuyasha and saw the angry fire rage with new intensity, betrayal now fresh in his mind. She stroked his hair, and let her hand trace down his arm to squeeze his hand. Amber eyes met hers and he nodded and set off.

With their silence, gestures and expressions and touching each other became their new form of communication. She didn't give it much though. Neither was sure when or how it started happening, but now it felt as natural as the silence they were almost constantly enveloped in.

The noise and commotion of the shrine and the encampment had been extremely overwhelming after almost two weeks of the soft rhythm of their footsteps and the insects and songbirds they had become accustomed to. Her footsteps sounded different now with the weight of the pack. It was like a strange tweak in a song that made it completely different.

It was going to be a long journey, but they had packed as light as possible. Inuyasha said he heard Totosai telling Kagome about Mount Hakurei, and the villagers said the ball of white light was headed northwest towards the mountain. Being the only clue they had to the others whereabouts, it was the first place they would start their search. Unease clawed at both of them with the head start Kagome and Sesshomaru had gotten. It was highly improbable that there would be any trace of them left, but they would have to try.

The duo stepped carefully over sleeping people, and finally made it to the edge of the inner village where the rice patties started and extended to the forest. Inuyasha reached out a hand and laid it on Sango's hip, pushing her behind him. He stopped and knelt, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and tucked her knees into his arms. His hands locked around her thighs, and then they were flying through the fields and into the trees. She rested her head against his shoulder, watching the world go by and dwelling on her rage.

Even her thoughts had stopped being words, and when she closed her eyes, everything was tinged with crimson. She thought of the first time she saw Mount Hakurei, and the battle the four of them had fought there, but the memory was all wrong. It was Kagome they were fighting, with Miroku laying at her feet. She held his beating heart to her lips with a clawed hand and sank demon fangs into it.

Sango watched it stutter to a halt, and fury ripped through her like molten metal in her blood.

Her eyes flew open and her body spasmed in Inuyasha's grip. He looked over his shoulder at her with understanding in his eyes and he squeezed her leg as a comforting gesture. She shook her head, realizing she must have dozed off, and tried to wake herself up.

The trees blurred by in a monotonous mass of green as Inuyasha ran, her body moving with him as naturally as if she was an extra appendage. The thought of sleeping on his back would have made her laugh only a few weeks ago, but she wasn't sure if she remembered how to laugh anymore.

Trees. Endless trees; the same scenery whipping past her. It made it seem like no matter how much ground they covered, they weren't getting anywhere. It was mind numbing and infuriating at the same time, and she had to focus on something else. Her anger made her grip around Inuyasha's neck tighten involuntarily, and he nudged her arm with his cheek to make her release him. She moved her hands to his shoulders and sighed, resting her head against him once more. His smell calmed her, and her crimson tinged vision faded a little.

Soon, the rhythmic motion and sound of the wind was pulling her back to unconsciousness. She had the same dream, only this time it was Inuyasha that lay by Kagome's feet, and she screamed when she sunk her teeth into his still beating heart. A huge wave of possessiveness and the need to protect flooded her brain and she slowly opened her eyes, knowing sleep would not come again. He looked at her again, and the same fire burned in his eyes as she felt in her heart, and they both understood without words.

'Catch her. Break her. Kill her. Rip her. Tear her. Bleed her. Slash her. Kill her. KILL HER. BLOOD.'

* * *

It took Kagome hours to form a barrier around it that held for any significant amount of time, but now she was getting the hang of it much quicker. He could taste it in her aura that she had finally captured the essence of making it involuntary.

'It has to be like breathing. Your power must remain intact even when you are sleeping or fighting,' he had repeated to her as if it would make it easier to do. He sympathized, remembering his father drilling the same sentence into his head as a child. However, Sesshomaru had taken the repetitive advice with far less grace than she, yipping and whining at his father like a spoiled puppy. His demon grumbled something vulgar in the back of his mind. He ignored it, watching as she struggled to pull the pieces of her power together to obtain the optimal hypothetical cage.

"Make it like your heartbeat, miko." He said softly to try and not divert her attention. Her barrier popped like a bubble the second the word 'miko' left his lips. Irritation coursed through him as the grate of Mount Hakurei against his mind and body grew more and more tedious, and he was about to snap at her for her carelessness when he saw her face.

"What?" He asked, a twinge of uneasiness running through him at the look on her face.

"You called me priestess." She almost whispered.

"And?"

"You…nothing." She gave him a radiant, fanged smile and returned her concentration to her work. His brow furrowed slightly in confusion as he watched her, but did not press her further.

'Such a simple thing made her smile like that… Humans are so strange.' He mused, staring at her claws. It didn't make sense that they had not disappeared with the sealing of the evil, demonic power within her, but he doubted she'd have any more knowledge to that than he did. He kept silent and let her focus, his body itching to leave as fast as possible.

As she completed a new wall within herself, her aura changed again. It smelled like rain and lightning, electric with her power but as cleansing as a rainstorm. She looked extremely satisfied with herself and she grinned up at him again.

"I think I did it!" She exclaimed, her face glowing with excitement.

"Stand." He commanded. She cocked her head in confusion, but did as she was asked. He scrutinized her movements, paying extra attention to her fine motor control and balance. She stood looking down at him, and after a moment of silence began to fidget uncomfortably under his intense examination.

"Be still." He growled.

"I can't. You're freaking me out. Is this some kind of test?" She asked.

"Yes," he answered simply. She groaned.

"I hate tests. Look, I'm fine. I've got this under control." She pirouetted as proof, as if that would convince him. "See?"

"If you are satisfied with this, then we are through here." He said coldly, pinning her in place with a molten glare as he stood up. She looked taken aback.

"Oh…okay. I guess we better leave then…" She turned and before she could even take a step, his claws were around her throat. Her hands flew to her neck, clawing at him, but he was dragging her backwards and threw her to the ground. Her body seemed to know what to do. Instead of flopping helplessly on her back, she flipped her legs over her head and landed on all fours with a snarl.

"What the fuck are you…" Her words were lost as his claws came flying towards her face, and she ducked just in time. Her control weakened and she designated more of her power towards the barrier without skipping a beat. He attacked again, and she moved right, then left, then ducked.

He was slowed significantly by the barrier, but she could barely keep ahead of him. Her dodges were sloppy and uncoordinated and she could hear his hand move by her body with nerve wracking proximity. Panic flooded her mind at the cold fires that burned in his glacial eyes as sparks of Hakurei's power flew across his skin.

Then there was a sudden shift in her mind. For a moment, she thought her barrier had let loose, but no flood of evil brought forth the agony of the barrier. She stumbled backwards away from his claws, but something was different. She watched his liquid movements with icy clarity. She felt warmth spread through her body and where her fear and her weakness resided in her mind before, calculation and cunning took its place. She sidestepped back and forth, catching onto the pattern of his attacks. She watched him the way he watched her; calculating the way his muscles moved and rippled and the sway of his body before each blow.

She smiled ominously. She could see the way he prepared and changed his stance before each strike, allowing her to predict his movements.

'Left foot, forward step, right swipe, duck left. Left swipe follow through, low jab, jump back. Right foot, forward step, flat right hand, neck swipe, right arm block.' Her body twisted and her arm moved as if it was instinct.

She knew she wasn't strong enough to stop the attack, but instead used the momentum of his arm traveling in towards his body to pull her body against him, spinning to land with her back against him and the claws of her left hand posed centimeters from his throat. So focused on her triumph, she almost didn't notice the claws on the arm that had pulled her to him flexed menacingly in a very similar position against her own neck. They both stood there frozen for a moment, until then a deep rumble emanated from deep within Sesshomaru's chest that reverberated through her entire body.

Her icy clarity faltered, and she glanced up at him. His eyes were bright with satisfaction, and she realized that he was chuckling. She didn't know if she had ever heard such a terrifyingly beautiful sound. She was so confused she didn't know what to do.

"Is this the part where you kill me?" She asked, genuinely unsure. He smirked at her, and she felt her heart skip a beat.

"No, miko. This is where we leave this horrible place. Your barrier held. It's time we test it outside this hell."


	16. Star Light, Star Bright

**Alrighty, so this chapter took an absolutely infuriating amount of time. School's started again (oh the joy) and work too. So this should be fun. I'll update as fast as possible but it will take me longer unless something drastically changes, like if I drop out of school. That could work. But until that happens, this story shall be updated as fast as I can without doing a complete hack job to it. **

**Alright, without further adieu,**

**ENJOY! **

* * *

With every step his strength was returning. His body felt lighter, lither, stronger, and it made him want to run. The joy that bubbled up with his power took even him by surprise, and he knew she felt it in his aura. She was not having as easy a time, and she had to stop every few moments to regain total control over the darkness that resided inside of her, but he caught her watching him with a queer expression on her face every now and then.

"Miko, I am not going to attack you so stop staring at me." He growled, though the glint of mistrust in her eyes made him want to smirk.

"Yeah, okay. Like it was so called for last time. One second I thought we were having a peachy fuckin' time and the next you were trying to kill me!" She snapped, her eyes glowing as she added more of her power to her barrier.

"It would be unwise to fight you without Totosai's seal. What is within you draws your power thin without the strain of battle."

"No way in hell am I letting that thing out again. It would kill me." She whined, taking a few small steps forward and then designating yet more power to the cage within herself.

"It has not killed you yet. If you see a white light do not walk towards it." She stopped looking at him incredulously.

"Did you just make a JOKE?" She reached up trying to put her hand against his forehead but he sidestepped. She moved with him and slapped her hand against his forehead. "Are you sure you're not sick or something?"

A growl ripped from his chest and he twisted away from her. The mischievous glint in her eye put him on the defensive waiting for her retaliation. She didn't disappoint. The strain of the barrier forgotten, she grinned and lashed out at him with her claws, mimicking the slashes and cuts he had made at her behind the walls of the barrier. He watched her with a bored expression on his face, always staying three steps ahead of her. She lunged at him with a burst of speed and he watched her barrier crack under the pressure. Her blue eyes grew wide with terror and the grin was wiped immediately from her face. He caught her as she doubled over.

"Stupid girl." He growled softly. "I told you it would be unwise. Now focus." His voice was hard, but his eyes were soft. He watched her as she choked in air and gripping onto him as if that would help her regain her hold on herself. The terror slowly faded from her face and her heart rate returned to normal. It took her an infuriatingly lengthy amount of time to reseal the weak spot in her barrier and she looked exhausted after finishing.

"That was scary…" She whispered, glancing up at him with huge, anxious eyes. All the earlier suspicion and playfulness had fled her face leaving her looking so vulnerable, an overwhelming need to protect her shot through him.

'Rin gave me that same look when I resurrected her.' He mused. An unwanted response filled his head.

**She needs a hug.**

'I will destroy you.' His demon snickered, and he bit back a growl. She shifted in his arms and he realized he was still holding her. He quickly stood, pulling them both up.

"I thought this was going to start getting easier." She whimpered.

"It's not easy controlling yourself. But no more games. We must get Totosai's seal before we have any more… mishaps." He said emotionlessly, trying to recover from his lapse in attention. Her face fell and her eyes flooded with guilt. She nodded and brushed herself off.

"I have to find Inuyasha and Sango too, and Totosai's is such a long walk." She said, looking into the distance.

"Not nearly so long. I will carry you." A bemused expression crossed her face.

"Wait… why didn't we try that before?" She asked. Something flashed through his eyes and his face became guarded. Instantly, he was the Ice Prince she had known before this journey began, and it shocked her how strange he looked being so detached and stoic.

'When did I become more use to him showing emotion than not?' She thought, searching his face for answers.

"You wouldn't allow it. I carried you for some of the time until you regained consciousness." He did not look at her the entire time he spoke. A pang of anxiety ran through her, and she knew there was something that he wasn't telling her. "We must move. There are many miles to cover."

He didn't wait for her to respond and suddenly she was airborne, his arms locked around her legs and her back. The wind roared in her ears and she found herself plastered to Sesshomaru's chest with the speed of his acceleration. The power from Mount Hakurei was gone in an instant and she gasped with the sudden pull of energy that her barrier required. As soon as their speed evened out and she could move again, she turned to tell him off for his lack of warning but the sentence caught in her throat. His hair was billowing out behind him in silver tendrils, catching sunlight and dancing wildly around his face. His eyes were glowing like molten gold with his power and his joy, both having been released from the burden of the mountains hold, and his lips curved ever so slightly upwards. Even the color of the crescent moon and the magenta striped on his cheeks seemed to be brighter.

'This is how he is supposed to be.' She thought to herself, smiling. 'Raw, lethal power in its most magnificent form. I like it when he's happy.'

Her anger with him completely dissipated as she enjoyed the trees whipping by. They were traveling a hundred times faster than Inuyasha ever could and back then even at that speed the trees blurred by in a mass of green. If she looked too long, her eyes would tear from the wind, but she could see snippets of things before they whipped past that she never could have picked out before. She looked down at her claws and it occurred to her that her new vision, hearing and appendages may disappear when the seal Totosai was forging took hold in her body. She rubbed her tongue over the sharp edges of her fangs and sighed.

'Well, I guess there's no use in worrying about it. What's going to happen will happen.' She relaxed in his arms, content, for now, to watch the sun cross the sky as they raced towards Totosai and her new weapon.

* * *

They stopped at sunset in a grassy knoll. A mountain stream ran adjacent to it, flowing fast and cold. The mountains it came from loomed mightily a ways ahead of them, silhouetted against the red inferno that spread across the sky from the setting sun, melting into yellows and deep indigos. Kagome smelled the water, and instantly her spirits were brightened.

"I'm going to go take a bath, kay? I'll be back in a little bit." She grinned at him. He cocked an eyebrow.

"There are no hot springs around here. Those waters are very cold."

"Fuck the hot springs. I'm sick of being on fire. That river's going to feel amazing." She purred, taking off towards the water. Sesshomaru shook his head and began collecting wood for a fire when she came back hypothermic. His sensitive ears picked up a soft splash and a subsequent squeal of surprise. He smirked, and set his armful of wood down on the ground. Once the fire was blazing, he sat back and watched the dark blue sky drown the last of the sun fiery rays. After a while she returned, as the first star became visible in the sky.

"Aaahhhh. That felt AWESOME." She flopped down on the opposite side of the fire from him, ringing her hair out and followed his gaze to the star.

"Star light, star bright.

First star I see tonight.

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have this wish I wish tonight." She recited, staring at the star with a sad smile on her face. She looked back at him. "Now make a wish." She closed her eyes and clasped her hands together. He waited until she opened her eyes again to speak.

"I did not know that you enjoyed poetry."

"Oh, I wouldn't call it poetry. My mom and I use to say that rhyme. The first star you see in the sky is supposed to grant you a wish. I guess it's kind of silly." She stared into the fire looking very far away in her mind with a half-smile on her lips. She worried one of her claws absentmindedly, and her eyes sparkled in the firelight.

"You look sad when you speak of your mother. Why is that?" She jumped a little at the sound of his voice.

"Oh, it's just that she lives…very far away. And I don't know if I'll ever get to see her again, because… well. It's complicated. And it would be dangerous for me to get there and you know…freak out. So you know I miss her. That's all." She stammered out and then laughed uncomfortably to try and cover up her lies. He didn't believe a word that just left her mouth, but he remained silent, and she started playing with her hair.

"Hey, Sesshomaru-sama?" He wasn't sure why the honorific sounded strange on her lips.

"Hn?"

"Thank you." She said softly, smiling, but looking down at her hands.

"You called for a blood pact. It would be dishonorable to deny you." He said stretching out sideways and leaning on an elbow. She shook her head.

"Well, thank you for that too. I would still be out there killing people if you didn't stop me, but I'm more grateful for the opportunity to get to know you. When I asked you to come with me, I never thought you would actually come, let alone take care of me like you've been. I don't know if you meant to, but you let me in a little bit. And now I get why Rin loves you so much. You've been really good to me, and I want you to know how much I appreciate it. And once you leave tomorrow when we get to Totosai's," she paused and looked up at him with a half joking half sad smile, "promise you won't try and kill me the next time I see you?" A shot of pain went through his heart at the realization that he would be leaving her tomorrow. He held her gaze steadily, trying to think of an answer that wouldn't betray too much of the discontent he felt.

"I promise." She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. She lay down and settled her head into the crook of her arm, staring into the fire again as he stared at her.

"You know," she whispered after a moment, "I'm really going to miss you." Molten gold met azure depths and he had no words to respond.

"Hn." She smiled, and this time it reached her eyes, and he thought maybe she understood what he couldn't say. Her eyes slipped closed and she wiggled around a bit, cuddling into her arm and getting comfortable. After a while, she drifted to sleep, but his eyes refused to close.

'Make a wish, Sesshomaru-sama.' Her voice echoed in his head. His gaze came to rest on that first star, now joined by millions of others that speckled the intense black expanse. He glanced back at the no longer completely human girl sleeping soundly across from him and gave an exasperated sigh. He closed his eyes and clasped his hands together as Kagome had done earlier, and sent his wish off to that first star they had seen on the last night that they would spend together.

* * *

**And THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who is favoriting and following and commenting and PMing me. I freaking love you guys. **

**Okay, till next time!**

**Em :)**


	17. Weapons and Darkness

**So, you wanna hear something fuckin' awesome?! This story has offically been viewed 20,000 times. TWENTY FREAKING THOUSAND times. That's absolutely mind blowing to me. Thank you to everyone that has read my story and commented or favorited or followed. You're all awesome. **

**This chappy was mainly written while I was highly intoxicated. I'm posting today, and not last night because I got home from a friends house and was like, "HEY, let's write some shit." Needless to say, it required much editing, although, it was so incredibly tempting to leave the part where Kagome tells Sesshomaru he's a "poopy shitheaded fuck-face." **

**I'll give you a gold star if you can tell me where she called him that. **

**Anyway, I'm late for work and it's time for the new chapter! YAAAAY.**

* * *

Amber eyes surveyed the surroundings carefully. His ears swiveled atop his head, twitching with every sound. Lack of sleep and voices whispering awful things in his dreams had put him on edge ever since they left the village, and it had only been getting worse. He jumped when Sango let out a little whimper and rolled over in her fitful sleep, and then everything fell silent again. Dawn would soon be here, and he had not slept at all. Something in the rustle of the leaves and the whisper of the wind told him something was coming, but he didn't know what.

There was a strange sound and then something stabbed him in the back of the neck. He lurched off the ground ready to combat whatever it was, Tetsusaiga already halfway out of its sheath.

"Inuyasha-sama!" The familiar voice called out before Inuyasha's hand connected with the back of his neck. Sango bolted up, sword drawn and ready to attack whatever had made the offending noise. Inuyasha reached over and put a hand on Sango's sword arm and held out the pesky flee demon with his other.

"Myoga. Why are you here?" His voice sounded strange, even to himself. It had been a week since he had used it, and it felt like Mount Hakurei wasn't much closer than it had been before so much traveling. Sango scanned the surrounding trees for any signs of other threats, then crawled over wearily and sat beside Inuyasha, waiting for the news that Myoga always brought with him. The little demon sat down in the palm of Inuyasha's hand and rubbed his head.

"I went to the village to look for you two, but Kaede told me that you had left already. What a mess it is over there. Anyway, I wanted to make sure that you were okay after that battle with Kagome. I had…ahem…er… urgent business to attend to, so I had to leave early." He stammered. Inuyasha and Sango stared at him with dull, lifeless eyes and he laughed uncomfortably.

"You ran away." Sango accused with a degree of emotionlessness that sounded even more intimidating than anger. Myoga's eyes filled with false tears.

"I did not! How could you accuse loyal old Myoga of such a thing! I would never! I've been serving…" He was cut off mid grovel.

"Enough," Inuyasha commanded sharply, sounding very much like Sesshomaru. "Do you know where Kagome is?" Myoga scratched his chin.

"Hm, well if she survived Mount Hakurei, by now she's probably headed to Totosai for her bow. She and Sesshomaru should be almost there by now." Inuyasha's eyes instantly blazed, and Sango lurched into action, collecting their supplies and packing everything away.

"He forged her a WEAPON?" He snarled viciously, his hand instinctively finding Tetsusaiga's hilt again. Myoga gave him an incredulous look, not understanding his anger.

"Why of course. No normal bow could withstand her power." Sango heaved her pack onto her shoulders and returned to Inuyasha's side and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks for nothing, Myoga." She hissed venomously. Inuyasha knelt down and the demon slayer slid into place on his back.

"Totosai's next on my shit-list. You better stay away." Inuyasha warned the flee with a foreboding growl.

"What did I…?" He tried to ask, but Inuyasha was already bounding away. After a moment, the two of them disappeared into the greenery and Myoga was left standing there alone and awestruck. "Jeez. They woke up on the wrong side of the dirt. I just saved them a whole lot of time. Totosai's isn't very far from here." He shook his head and frowned. "And why would Inuyasha-sama threaten me? I just gotta hitch a ride on something with tasty blood and figure out what's going on…" The flee said to himself jumping away and completely oblivious to the danger he was headed towards.

* * *

The first rays of sun were peeking over the hills spreading tendrils of golden light across the meadow and making the dew on the grass sparkle like diamonds. Sesshomaru sat with Tokijin lying in front of him, and he ran a finger over the smooth surface of the fang. He looked at the sleeping girl across the smoldering ashes of last night's fire and wondered if she would have the same control over the sword with the Shikon's power sealed. He grabbed the hilt, and he winced as black power sizzled around his hand as he sheathed it at his hip. He glared at it for a moment before Kagome let out a little moan and rolled over. She sat up, her hair in a wild mess around her face and looked up at him looking confused and disoriented.

"Good morning," she said sleepily, rubbing her eyes. "I had the weirdest dream last night."

"Oh?" He asked, trying not to smile at how disheveled she looked.

"Mhm, but I don't remember most of it now. It had something to do with a girl's voice telling me something? Or a phone call. Or something." Her brow wrinkled up in concentration, trying to remember what she dreamed about.

"What is a phone call?" She yawned.

"Something from my ti…DREAM. Something from my dream." He cocked an eyebrow at her, waiting for further clarification. "Just something I made up." She looked at him hopefully, seeing if he bought it.

"You lied to me last night about your mother, and I let you think I believed you. This time, I require the truth." He commanded. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, pulling at the tangles.

"Alright. But it's kind of a long story. Can we walk…or erm…fly and talk?" He nodded and walked over to her. She grabbed his shoulder and wrapped an arm around his neck as he picked her up. He adjusted her weight in his arms and looked down at her expectantly. So distracted was she by the strange explanation she was about to give him, she missed the wicked gleam in his eye

"Okay, so I'm fRAAAAAAAAH..." The speed of his acceleration ripped the words from her mouth and she found herself once again plastered to his chest. When they came to speed, she glared up at him. "Thanks again for the warning. Jeez, I don't think I'll ever get use to that." He glanced down at her and she caught the look in his eyes. "You MEANT to do that! Oh what the hell."

"Your explanation, Kagome. I am waiting." His voice rumbled through his chest and she pouted at him.

"Okay fine. I'm from the future." He gave her a skeptical look.

"This better not be another example of when pigs are flying." Her brow furrowed in a look of complete perplexity. He shook his head and responded to the question in her eyes. "That is another story. Continue." She gave him a lingering glance of bewilderment before launching into her narrative.

"I'm not lying to you, and yes, I know it sounds insane. I'm not going to be born for another 5 centuries. My family owns a shrine built around this old well, and I was looking for my cat one day and this centipede demon grabbed me and dragged me into it. When I looked up, there was sky above me instead of shrine which was freaky as hell, by the way. I didn't know it, but I was 500 years in the past. I climbed out and walked around until I found Inuyasha pinned to the Sacred Tree, and when he woke up, he thought I was Kikyo…the woman that shot him with a sacred arrow and left him there for 50 years… and he wanted to kill me. Then that centipede demon found me and wanted the Shikon Jewel imbedded in my body, so pulled the arrow out of Inuyasha, and he killed the demon, but not before it ripped the Jewel from my body. Some crow demon stole it, and I tried to shoot it with an arrow, but I ended up shattering the Shikon and well… the rest is history. I've been traveling back and forth through the well since. I'm still not sure how it works." He searched her face for a long time, waiting for her to give him some hint that she was lying. She met his gaze steadily with an expression that dared him to contest her word. Finally, he accepted it for truth.

"That explains much about your strangeness. Tell me, do we know each other in the future?" Her entire face changed, and she looked up at him with sadness in her eyes.

"Sesshomaru…there are no demons 500 years from now. People don't even believe they ever existed." His eyes grew wide, and then they iced over. His face looked like it was carved out of stone, facing straight ahead towards the mountains in which Totosai resided. He could already smell the metal in the fire demon's forge, which did nothing to make this new knowledge easier to take. She was going to leave, and he had to be faced with the fact that he would live a much shorter life than he had expected to. This morning was not starting well. She looked up at him remorsefully, and then nestled her head into his chest above his armor.

"Don't look like that. I don't like it when you're upset." She said softly, knowing his sharp ears would hear despite the howling wind. She felt him instantly tense up, his grip around her body becoming almost painfully tight.

"That is none of your concern, girl. We are almost there." He growled frostily. In his peripheral vision he watched her face fall, and her eyes became liquid pools of quiet discontent. Remorse made his grip on her loosen when she shifted in his arms, but his expression remained glacial and indifferent. A soft growl murmured through his head.

**You're going to miss her too.**

'Your input on this matter is unnecessary.'

**Fine. If you won't admit it, than I will. I'll miss her. I like the way she smells and she reminds me of Midoriko. AND she's fun to play-fight with.**

'Midoriko's power runs through her veins. That is the only semblance between the two. And she smells like human.'

**You know, lying to yourself is called denial and that includes trying to lie to me. She's kind and powerful and loyal, and Midoriko was the same. And she smells nothing like a human. Whatever was in the Shikon changed her permanently.**

'Nothing is permanent until Totosai seals her.' His demon gave a snort of displeasure and Sesshomaru snuck a quick glance at the girl in his arms. It was true, she wasn't completely human, but neither was she demon. A memory of a laughing, very young Midoriko flashed through his mind, and pain gripped his heart. Before this girl had gone and released her, he had almost successfully forced himself to forget. But Midoriko's spirit who had greeted him with cryptic words and her familiar scent had brought everything bubbling back to the surface. He forced himself to change his train of thought before he dropped the girl in his arms and found something to annihilate. Kagome must have felt him looking at her, because she raised sad azure eyes to meet his. He couldn't look at her and instead honed in on the column of smoke rising from Totosai's forge.

"We are here." He informed her icily, guarding his heart and his face from feeling or showing anything. She nodded and looked closer as he slowed down.

"I don't see Totosai anywhere." She responded softly, her eyes dark with disappointment.

"Hn."

The howling of the wind died down as he lowered them to the ground, but still the old demon was nowhere to be found. Instead, at the mouth of his forge there was a gorgeous bow resting on a slab of stone with a quiver of arrows beside it. Kagome froze the second she saw it, looking nowhere but her new weapon. Sesshomaru set her down and she walked slowly over to it, allowing the power resonating from it to wash over her. It was silver and gleaming, and the thought crossed her mind that she potentially would never have the strength to draw back the string, but its beauty overtook her. Her fingers paused inches from the graceful curve of its inlayed surface, and she looked back to Sesshomaru. He hadn't moved; his face as stoic as the day she had met him but his eyes burned with golden fires that she couldn't read. She turned back, took a deep breath and grabbed the grip of her bow.

She remembered being shocked at how light it was before everything went back, and she was falling, falling, falling.

* * *

**BAM.**


	18. Capacity for Hate

Power exploded around Kagome in a whirlwind, and he threw an arm up to block his face from flying debris. Confusion flooded his body and he struggled to reach the small girl, but the ferocity of the power swirling around her made it impossible. Every muscle in her body was straining, but she stood shock still, her head thrown back and her hand still grasping the bow as its power raged around her. Pink tendrils started coiling around her chest becoming more intense and the wind actually lifted her off the ground. They twisted tighter, and through all of the chaos around them he heard her gasp in pain. His eyes began to bleed red, but as suddenly as it came, the wind died, the power subsided and her body went limp. In a flash of white, Sesshomaru caught her, carefully avoiding contact with the bow.

"Kagome?" He said, cupping the side of her face with his hand. "Kagome!" Worry flooded his mind and a vicious snarl escaped his lips when he felt a familiar aura coming towards him. The taiyoukai remained crouched by the unconscious girl as the youkai approached slowly. Her aura grew turbulent as a ball of pink energy formed over her chest and then pulsed outward, disintegrating her claws and fangs in a puff of sparkling dust. He called her name again, but she remained dead to the world. A figure appeared at the edge of the woods and Sesshomaru's golden eyes locked in on him.

**He hurt her. He hurt Kagome. He must die for what he's done**. His demon growled low in his head. Sesshomaru couldn't help but agree. She'd trusted Totosai to mend her, to seal her, and if he betrayed her, he would pay.

"Totosai," he snarled icily, watching the other demon shiver from the other side of the field. "What did you do to her?"

The old demon came walking up slowly with his hands in front of his face, wearing a cautious expression. Sesshomaru's eyes started bleeding red at his nonchalance, and a feral growl rumbled low from his chest. Totosai walked quicker, reaching Kagome and kneeling down to examine her. He turned her face side to side, and fiddled with the bow in her hands.

"She looks to be just fine!" He said cheerfully looking up at the less than impressed youkai holding her protectively.

"She is unconscious. How is that akin to fine?" The warning was evident in his voice, punctuated by the crimson fires burning in his eyes. Totosai looked nervous.

"You have to understand the power of that seal. Her body was just overloaded, she'll wake up soon."

"For your sake, you'd best hope so." He threatened with malicious foreboding laced in every word.

"Your father should have beaten you more…So disrespectful of your elders." Totosai rasped contemplatively.

"How DARE…" Every muscle in his body was poised for the kill. Acid dripped involuntarily from his claws and his demon howled for blood, but a small moan that escaped her lips stopped him mid lunge. Her bright sapphire eyes opened slowly, and she blinked a few times at the change in light.

"Kagome? How are you feeling, dear?" Totosai asked, peering down at her. She blinked up at him, her vision fuzzy and disoriented.

"Totosai…what happened?" She sat up rubbing her head with the hand that wasn't occupied by the bow.

"You are sealed, my dear." She looked up at him with a pained half-smile.

"That's great, but why do I feel like I was hit by a train?" He laughed, having no idea what a train was but understanding the implication. She frowned and rolled her shoulders to stretch them out.

"The demonic energy probably started seeping into your body, changing your aura and body. Everything was instantly sealed the second you touched the bow. You're going to be sore for a few days, but you'll recover nicely, I'm sure." Totosai said in a comforting, grandfatherly way.

"Mmm." She moaned, closing her eyes and relaxing back against the rock she was leaned against when she woke up.

"Miko." The deep, rumbling baritone made her smile.

"Hi Sesshomaru," she muttered, her eyes still closed. And then the rock moved beneath her. Her eyes flew open and golden eyes gazed down at her, one eyebrow cocked with an amused smirk on his face. She scrambled off of his lap and into a sitting position, blushing scarlet.

"S…sorry. I didn't know that was you." She stammered out. It took all his constraint to keep himself from smiling out rightly. He stood and towered over Totosai, glaring down at him.

"Where were you when we arrived?" He demanded with intrinsic authority.

"Nowhere in particular. I just wanted to be far away in case something went wrong and Kagome's body couldn't handle the extreme spiritual pressure and she exploded." Totosai said casually. Sesshomaru growled and Kagome glared at him in exasperation.

"Thanks for being so concerned about my life." She said sarcastically. He laughed and patted her on the head.

"I'm just kidding. There was just a possibility you'd purify everything around here and I'd rather avoid that."

"And you weren't concerned for Sesshomaru?" She hissed, sounding much more irritated than when he told her it was her that was potentially facing death. Sesshomaru gazed down at the feisty girl glaring at the fire demon and felt a rush of warmth.

"Well, usually miko energy doesn't affect people she's well acquainted with. And you are wearing his mother's kimono, so I figured he'd be fine." Kagome froze mid comeback as his words processed. She turned to him, her azure eyes searching the taiyoukai's face.

"Is that the truth?" Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed dangerously at Totosai before he looked down at her and nodded. She grew quiet, her face looking perturbed for a second before she looked back up and smiled sweetly at him.

"Thank you for allowing me to wear it." He nodded again and her eyes lingered on his face for a moment before she turned to Totosai. "I'm sorry to be in a rush, but I have to go. Is there any possibility of this thing blowing up or anything else I should know?" She asked only half joking.

"Hmm," he rasped. "It's really not my creation. I added a few things to make it a stronger seal, but I specialize in demonic weapons, and that wouldn't be much use for you. It's actually…"

"…Midoriko's bow." Sesshomaru finished. Kagome gaped at the two of them.

"How do you know that? And isn't that like…defacing a grave?" Totosai gave Sesshomaru a curious look before responding.

"Midoriko died wielding her sword, not her bow. The shrine that she trained at has kept this bow for hundreds of years as a piece of history, but no one since has been able to wield it. She gifted you her power, so you, in theory, should be able to use it."

"And if I can't?" She asked, looking torn between wanting and not wanting to know the answer.

"Hell if I know," Totosai grumbled. "Try it and find out." She looked at him skeptically, and then stood to go retrieve an arrow. She groaned and swayed on her feet, catching herself with Sesshomaru's chest. He tried to take her arm, but she shook her head and walked over as soon as she regained her balance. She notched an arrow and drew the string back, surprised at how easy the bow flexed in her hands. She aimed for a tree, took a deep breathe to suppress the butterflies in her chest, and released. Bright pink power burst forth around the arrow as it raced away from the three stunned figures and ripped a path through the trees, finally lodging itself deep in the bark of one a hundred yards away. Kagome looked down at the bow in wonder.

"Holy shit…" She said breathlessly. Totosai smiled happily.

"See? I told you that you would be able to wield it." Kagome muttered something under her breath at his sudden confidence, but he continued. "Now for the trouble of getting that bow for you, your fee is building a fire and fetching water for my bath." He rasped cheerily. Sesshomaru struck him over the head with a closed fist, glaring at him in irritation. Totosai yelped in pain and rubbed the welling lump on the top of his head.

"Just kidding," he amended ruefully. Kagome grinned and slung the bow over her shoulder, grabbing Totosai's hand.

"Thank you so much, Totosai-ojichan!" He looked at her contagious smile and found himself begrudgingly chuckling with her, the welt on his head forgotten for a moment.

"You're very welcome, Kagome. Be careful with it, and always keep it with you." He cautioned. Kagome squeezed his hand and looked to Sesshomaru, about to ask if he was ready to leave, but her expression sobered and her smile faded. Totosai saw the change in her and looked between the two, suddenly understanding. He stretched and started hobbling over to his strange three eyed cow waving over his shoulder. "Work to be done, people to see. Take care, Kagome. And Sesshomaru, don't do anything stupid."

Sesshomaru's teeth clenched, and he turned to face the fire demon, but he had already mounted his cow and was speeding away, looking back with a wicked grin on his face.

"Fool." He growled dangerously, glaring at his retreating back. Kagome scuffed her boot against the ground, kicking a rock and stared down with somber eyes.

"So…I guess this is goodbye?" She asked, still looking at the ground. Sesshomaru turned to examine her. Raven hair covered her face, but the slight smell of salt made his chest constrict.

'Is…is she about to cry?' He thought, his eyes widening. She looked up at him with unshed tears in her eyes when he didn't respond, and he thought he saw a flicker of hope in their sapphire depths.

"I have something for you, Miko. Consider it a parting gift." He said, each word weighting on his heart like bricks. She drew back a little, the hope fleeing from her face, but then she managed a smile.

"Sesshomaru, that wasn't necessary." He shook his head and her eyes grew wide in disbelief when he drew Tokijin, crackling with black power against his hand, from his waistband.

"It has chosen you. It will no longer have me as its master. Tokijin is yours." She took a step back and shook her head vigorously.

"I can't take it…" She murmured, watching it hiss against him. He held out to her.

"But it is your sword. I didn't want to give it to you before I was certain you wouldn't lose control again. It absorbed so much of the dark power harbored in you, I was uncertain if your barrier would hold against such strain." Azure eyes met golden fire and she stepped closer to him.

"Are you…" He cut her off by taking her hand and resting the hilt of Tokijin in her palm and closing her fingers around it. The sword hissed against her palm and she looked at it in shock. Black tendrils of power began weeping from the blade and creeping up her arm. Her eyes flashed with her power as the tendrils dove into her skin, and Sesshomaru worried for a moment that he had made a mistake. The sick aura emanating from the sword dissipated slowly and was surrounded by soft pink coils of pure power from hilt to tip.

'Master, you could have been so much more…' A ghostly hiss echoed through her head, emanating from Tokijin. She waved the sword in slow circles, shock and awe making her face glow. She looked up at him and tears filled her eyes as she rushed into his arms, sword still in hand. She buried her face in his chest and squeezed him tightly, the smell of salt and rain surrounding him with her proximity. He tensed the second she touched him unsure of whether to hug her back, but his demon's low growl filled his mind, and his arms closed around her. She let out a little sigh and snuggled closer into his chest. The desire to bury his nose in her neck and hair was overpowering, but he contained himself, and after a moment, released her. She took a step back and looked up at him with tears on her cheeks and shining eyes.

"Thank you. For everything." She whispered, her voice thick with tears. His hand twitched with the impulse to pull her back, and as she turned to walk away, he heard himself call her name. Goosebumps rose on her skin and she looked back with a sad smile on her face.

"Mhm?" She said, not trusting her voice.

"Before you go, tell me one more thing." He asked steadily.

"Sure."

"What did you wish for?" She looked taken aback, and then a wide grin graced her lips as she wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. The mischievous sparkle in her eye he'd grown so fond of was back.

"If I tell you it won't come true. But I'll give you a hint. If it does, I'll see you soon, Sesshomaru-sama." She bowed and turned away again, sheathing Tokijin at her hip with a loop in her kimono beneath the obi as she walked away. He watched her go for a moment before turning himself and heading in the direction of Rin and Jaken, uncertainty ripping through his mind.

**You should have told her, a voice growled in his head.**

'She looked too happy to tell her something that would make her so upset.'

**She will hate you for this.**

'That is probably for the best.

**I want her.**

'You know nothing.'

**I know you do not want to leave her.**

'Silence your infernal whining.'

For once, his demon did as it was asked, leaving him with only one glaring warning.

**Remember, pup. Humans are fickle creatures, but one thing is sure. Once they feel betrayed, they have never failed to shock us with their capacity to hate.**

Sesshomaru stopped as dark memories and dread crept into his heart like poison in his veins. He didn't even pause at his demon's change in demeanor or the insulting name he called him, but his words echoed through his head. Half of him wanted to be pleased at the idea of the girl hating him, but the other half felt like it was being crushed under the weight of that notion. After a moment, he continued on his way to the camp his ward and the imp had set up.

'It is better if she hates me.' He decided. His demon made a noise of exasperation, somewhere between a whine and a growl and then fell completely silent, leaving Sesshomaru with nothing but the smell of her on his skin and the weight crushing in on his heart.

* * *

**Aww, I hate goodbyes. :( Anyway, lemme know what you think! Thank you everyone for your comments and favorites and follows. You guys are awesome. Thanks for your support. **

**Rate, review, tell me what you think!**

**-Em**


	19. Flowers in her Hair

"Sess…SESSHOMARU-SAMA!" A high sweet voice rang out to him before he even entered the camp his group had made. The little girl raced to him with tears in her huge chocolate eyes, but she wore a gigantic grin on her face. She attached herself to his leg, and he put his hand on her head.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken sobbed, waddling over to his master after the girl. Sesshomaru didn't even glance at him.

"Rin." The taiyoukai greeted her, the ache in his chest dulling at the sight of the little girl.

"Rin KNEW it was you. Rin missed you so much, Sesshomaru-sama! Jaken-sama was worried that you had left us, but Rin knew that Sesshomaru-sama would never do that to us! Jaken-sama wouldn't let Rin put pretty flowers on him either!..." She spoke a mile a minute, filling her protector in on every last thing that had happened while he was away. Sesshomaru looked around the camp with a raised eyebrow. Flowers littered the ground of the camp, and Jaken was pulling them out of his clothing, leaving a pile at his feet. Ah-Un was lounging lazily in the sunlight, one head seemingly asleep while the other's bright eyes greeted its master.

'Normal. Everything is normal.' He thought, looking back down to the little girl grinning up at him. 'How mundane.'

"RIN! Sesshomaru-sama has heard enough of your ranting! You should… ACK!" Jaken squawked as a boot landed on his face. Rin cocked her head and considered the flattened Jaken's words for a moment before her eyes lit up and she jumped up and down with excitement. An image of Kagome flashed through his head, and his fists clenched in anger.

"Rin knows! Rin will pick Sesshomaru-sama pretty flowers!" She skipped off, humming to herself, and Jaken pealed himself off the ground to scamper after her.

"Rin you insolent girl, wait!" He called, trying to catch up with his short green legs. Sesshomaru watched them disappear before letting a snarl rip from his chest as he spun around and landed a wood splintering punch on the nearest tree. He kept his fist against the splintered wood, breathing hard and feeling his blood drip down his knuckles. Ah-Un's other head awoke and the dragon examined him through two sets of intelligent eyes.

'PATHETIC. You are pathetic.' He roared to himself silently, turning to the dragon a releasing a vicious snarl. Ah-Uh stared at him for a moment longer, and then rested both of its heads on the ground and let out a snort. Sesshomaru collected himself and removed his fist from the wood, his mask firmly back in place as he sat at the base of the marred tree. Blood still seeped from his knuckles, and he growled in annoyance. In a streak of white, he disappeared from camp in search of a stream to clean his bleeding hand with so his young ward would not worry for him.

'Why are you so CONCERNED for her?' He berated himself furiously as he ran. 'She is human, and powerful enough to care for herself. And if she is foolish enough to go kill herself then she is at fault. I did my duty. I fulfilled the pact, now it is time to forget her. Forget Midoriko. It is over, and they are both gone.' He drilled it into his head as he reached the edge of the slow moving river. He sat on the bank and submerged his hand, closing his eyes and trying to clear his mind.

**Why are you so against the idea that you care for the girl? Blood pacts aren't meant to transcend species. They demand fulfillment only between demons, and even then they are rare. Curiosity made you follow her. The same curiosity that made you follow Midoriko. Don't put this on some half dead, ancient tradition designed for joining political parties. If anything this should bring you closure, not more anger.**

The cold flowing water around his fingers and deep slow breaths were calming him. The furious redness faded from his vision.

'Closure, huh?' He thought, feeling exhausted, and for the first time in four hundred years, he let himself remember.

_She looked like she was about seven. Her hair was a short, tangled mess around her face, curling in just the wrong places to make it stick up. She wielded a stick about the length of a sword and was in the process of assaulting large oak tree. Pieces of bark flew off and a couple landed in her hair, making her look all the more wild. Sesshomaru watched her from behind a tree, unsure of what to make of the girl. She landed a hard blow on a loose piece of bark and a chunk flew off and hit her in the eye._

_"OW, OW, OW, OW, OWWWWW!" She twisted around, dropped the sword, managed to trip over it, and fell to the ground holding her eye. Sesshomaru allowed himself to peek a little farther around the tree, curiosity getting the best of him._

_She blinked away tears and bark from her brown eyes before spotting him._

_"HEY! You there! Why are you spying on me?" Sesshomaru ducked back behind the tree, and considered running, but he heard her call, "I'm not going to hurt you. You can come out." Sesshomaru crinkled up his little nose in an imitation of his father's terrifying scowl and stepped out from behind the tree._

_"You couldn't hurt me. I am Sesshomaru, Heir to the Western Lands, son of the Great InuTashio. I could kill you in seconds." He growled with his hands on his hips, trying to sound intimidating. And then he pouted forgetting all about the intimidation aspect of his plan and whined, "And I wasn't spying on you. You're just in my way."_

_She considered him for a moment, looking him over and then gave him a gap toothed grin._

_"You're awful small to be some great lord." She teased, taking a weary step closer to him. Sesshomaru pouted harder at her jape._

_"I'm not grown up yet. When I'm big, you'll see. I'll eat you up in one bite." She laughed and despite his confusion at her lack of fear, he smiled with her._

_"I'm Midoriko; priestess, sword master and ninja, at your service." She listed, and bowed low. "I fight bad guys!" She exclaimed. Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow._

_"Are you really all of those things?" He asked skeptically._

_"Nope, but I will be when I'm big! That way, I'll be able to kick your big furry butt!" She laughed, kicking her stick up into her hand and bopped him on the head with it. He cried out and chased after her as she danced away._

_"YOU WILL NOT!" He shouted, stumbling after her._

_"WILL TOO!"_

_"NUH-UH!"_

_"YEAH-HUH!" She exclaimed, just as he pounced on her and they both fell to the ground in a heap of arms and legs. He struggled to sit up and found her eyes._

_He grinned at her triumphantly and said, "Nuh-uh. You're it. Catch me if you can." Then he turned and bounded off, both of them laughing hysterically._

Sesshomaru heaved a huge sigh and removed his hand from the cold of the water and stood.

'I needed no closure. Time was my closure. This just reopened old wounds.' He responded to his demon, turning and heading back to camp. 'You should understand that.'

**Time dulls the pain, but does not bring closure. You should understand. It was my claws that tore her flesh. We broke the blood pact with Midoriko, but we fulfilled the one with Kagome. That is worth something, especially now that she wields Midoriko's power and her bow.**

'I betrayed them both. Kagome believes she harmed only the human male she traveled with. I allowed her to massacre an entire village of people. I hardly think she will be so thankful once she realizes that.'

**That is still amendable. We could never right things with Midoriko, but Kagome is still alive. You could make things right with her.**

Sesshomaru entered his camp and relaxed against the tree he maimed, listening to Rin approach camp with Jaken squawking after her.

'When did you grow up?' He asked his demon and was responded to with a snort.

**When you stopped your three hundred and seventy year sulk and became a functioning adult. You've shunned your brother and every living creature that's tried to get close to you in a quest for power and control since Midoriko died, and you think you're over it? Pfft. You became the demon she knew back this last week, and the only reason that happened was because of Kagome. Fix things before it's too late, jackass.**

"Hn." He mumbled, trying to erase the frown from his forehead. As he stood, Rin came running into camp with a bouquet of wildflowers in her hands, Jaken close behind.

"Sesshomaru-sama! I picked these for you!" He walked past the grinning girl, heading back out of camp. Jaken ran into the back of Rin's legs and fell over with a squeak.

"Rin. We are leaving. Get Ah-Uh." Rin nodded and turned, stepping on Jaken as she ran over to the two headed dragon. She pet both his heads and all four of his big yellow eyes opened and regarded her sleepily.

"Ah-Un! It's time to wake up! We're leaving now." She said in a sing-song voice. Ah nuzzled the girl and Un nudged her towards their back. She giggled and climbed on. The dragon stood and followed Sesshomaru out of camp.

"Hurry up, Jaken-sama! Sesshomaru-sama is going to leave you behind!" She called to the little green toad. He stopped sobbing on the ground where he had been flattened to look up and run after them before he started sobbing again about being left behind.

Sesshomaru walked silently, determining that he'd probably intercept her at the bottom of the mountain by tomorrow afternoon if she stopped at nightfall, and if not he'd track her scent.

"Where are we going, Sesshomaru-sama?" Rin asked, as she dragged a squirming Jaken up onto Ah-Un next to her.

"To find the miko." He answered.

"Kagome-sama?!" Rin squealed with delight and began tucking flowers from her bouquet into Ah-Un's saddle singing softly.

_In the forest of the mountains,_

_Rin and Jaken ride Ah-Un_

_Sesshomaru-sama leads us,_

_And we'll find Kagome soon._

_Maybe she will come with us_

_When we get over there_

_Rin would like that, she's so pretty_

_Rin could put flowers in her hair._

* * *

"Damn it, Kagome. You're such an idiot," she scolded herself angrily. She made a scrunched up, moronic face and mumbled in a mocking tone, "'If my wish comes true I'll see you soon, Sesshomaru-sama.' Pfft. Fucking cheese ball. He probably ran in the opposite direction after that." She kicked a rock furiously and watched it skitter across the ground into the trees. She stopped, looked around and sighed.

"I should have asked Totosai if he knew where Inuyasha and Sango could be. I don't even know where to start looking." She grumbled and then started walking again, sending a silent thank you that it was all downhill being on a mountain and whatnot.

'I gotta start somewhere… They're probably really mad at me still anyway…' she thought sadly. 'I was so awful to them. They'll probably never forgive me. And here I've been off gallivanting with Inuyasha's damn brother.' Guilt swept over her and she clenched her fists.

"Stupid, stupid, STUPID. I should have gone after them the second I knew the Shikon's power could spread. And I'm STILL talking to myself." She groaned in exasperation and forged on, trying to keep her mind on other things. She spread out her aura reaching for any signs of her friends. Residual lingering energy of Sesshomaru's made Totosai's forge spark against her aura, and she could feel Totosai returning from wherever he had gone, although his was a much less intense presence. Various lesser youkai scattered as her aura clashed against theirs, setting the forest into a flurry of skittering feet. The light scampering reminded her of Shippo, and her heart felt like it was going to burst. If her friends never wanted to see her again, then his absence in her life would be one of the most painful.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts, and continued searching for any interesting presences in the near vicinity. She heard running water and sped up her pace, her throat feeling parched and scratchy from crying. Reaching the small stream she bent down, and then paused.

'This is the wild, Kagome. And no one is here to protect you. Think before you do stupid things.' She sent out a pulse of pure energy rippling outwards to warn anything nearby that she was dangerous, and then pulled her aura in towards herself as not to send a beacon marking her location.

The water was freezing, but she ended up scrubbing away of the feeling of tears on her cheeks and drinking deeply. She sighed in contentment and then moved on, unaware that her warning had reached just far enough to raise the hairs on the back of a certain amber eyed male's neck. His ears swiveled atop his head in her direction, and he growled low and menacing. The woman on his back squeezed his shoulder, and then they were racing through the trees towards her, the same wild mantra pulsing in their heads.

Catch her. Break her. Rip her. Tear her. Bleed her. Slash her. Kill her.

* * *

**Okay, so the majority of you said that you'd rather keep everything together. So I shall. Hopefully this chapter posts normally. **

**I've been having a bit of trouble with connecting point A to point B with this story. I know where I want to go with it, but I'm having a bit of trouble getting there. So if my chapters take a little longer I'm sorry. I'm just really uninspired at the moment. Hopefully that will go away. **

**Alright, thank you everyone for you comments and PM's. You guys seriously are the best.**

**~emmy **


	20. Dying is Easy

The sun was low in the sky, setting the clouds aflame and giving the eerie impression that the horizon was soaked in blood. Kagome decided to settle in for the night next to the stream while there was still light. It had widened into a larger, fast moving river as she descended the mountain. Here on the banks at least one flank would be protected.

She had noticed an intense presence just on the edge of her aura an hour or two ago while checking for any imminent threat ahead. Just a slight brush against it had sent a flare back to her and she instantly withdrew her presence and suppressed her aura. She hadn't been in contact with it long enough to determine what it was, but it felt distinctly hostile and she hoped it hadn't noticed her probing. She picked up her pace and walked as silently as possible from that point on, trying not to draw attention to herself while putting as much distance from the point of contact as possible.

Now, as she settled against a tree for the night, she still couldn't force herself to relax. The density of the negative energy pulsating from whatever demon that was made her skin crawl. She didn't even dare make a fire at the risk of the smoke and the smell drawing it closer to her. Cerulean eyes scanned the tree line that was growing darker by the moment as the sun sank lower in the sky.

'Something isn't right…' she thought, her heart racing in her chest. Almost blind by the darkness, she couldn't stand completely suppressing her power and leaving her blind to the auras around her as well. She took a deep breath, and allowed her aura to spread around her on the bank, but stopped it just before the tree line.

'At least I'll have some warning…' She relaxed a little at the thought and let her eyes slip closed, but it was too quiet. The absence of the sound of a crackling fire and her companions breathing grated on her ears, as well as the distinct lack of a certain taiyoukai's presence surrounding her in a calming bubble of safety. She rested her head back against the tree and felt her exhausted muscles relax slowly. She was about to drift to sleep, when crimson and black exploded against her closed eyelids as the same hostile aura collided with her own. She scrambled to her knees and behind the tree, every muscle in her body screaming with the urge to flee. But she couldn't. She knew this presence; it was as familiar to her as her own.

'Inuyasha… He's so angry… no, that doesn't do this justice. He is livid.' She thought, a pang of terror coursing through her and her grip on her bow tightened, an arrow already notched. The smooth silver surface of her seal pulsed under her hand comfortingly, or maybe it was just her hand shaking.

"Kagome." She heard him growl low and dripping with hatred. Her heart almost stopped at the sound of his voice. She wanted to run to him; to hold him; to tell him how sorry she was, but that was out of the question. Between shallow breaths she heard the scraping of a sword against its scabbard, and she knew she had to make a move.

'This isn't him. This is what the evil energy is doing to him…' she swore to herself over and over.

"Inuyasha…" she almost whispered, her voice betraying how scared she was as she stood to face them. Before she could reveal herself, a familiar whirring caught her ear as Hiraikotsu barreled towards her, smashing a ring into the bark of the tree where her head had been before she ducked. It spiraled around the tree and returned to Sango.

"Stop! I know you're angry! But please just let me explain!" Kagome cried, stepping out from behind the tree, but not daring to drop her notched arrow and bow. "I can…" She stopped dead when she saw them; gaunt and pale and battle ready. Hiraikotsu was poised against Sango's back, ready to be flung should Kagome make any sudden movements, and Inuyasha was a snarling, feral animal with a sword crouched by her feet. His silver hair was tangled and they both looked windblown and disheveled. Even still, their movements were spasmodic and fitful.

"Did you give them a chance to explain? How about Miroku?" Sango spat, clenching her fists, tears glistening in her listless eyes.

"And is that Tokijin on your hip? What'd you do…use Sesshomaru until you didn't need him to be your air raid transportation anymore and then killed him too?" Inuyasha added, his eyes glowing with loating.

"I didn't mean to! I couldn't control myself! I was…" Kagome tried to explain, letting the bowstring relax in her grip, but Inuyasha cut her off with his dead, raspy voice.

"You killed a hundred people, Kagome. We're here to exterminate you." He announced emotionlessly, straightening up and raising Tetsusaiga over his head. "Prepare to die."

Kagome's eyes went wide, his declaration about the people killed paralyzing her with fear, and her arrow dropped to the ground. He charged at her leaving her no time but to raise her hands above her head and close her eyes as he brought Tetsusaiga's blade down on her. A ripple of pure energy pulsed outward from her bow and she felt a thud against her hands. Peeking open one eye, she looked up and saw Tetsusaiga resting against a soft pink glow emanating from her palms. Inuyasha growled furiously and swung again to the same results. Kagome couldn't even process anything but that sentence.

"When…how? Who did I kill?" She stammered softly, sinking to her knees as Inuyasha spat and jumped back.

"An entire fucking VILLAGE, you BITCH." Sango yelled as she hurled Hiraikotsu towards the small girl. The bow on her shoulder released another ripple of power, disturbing the giant boomerang in its flight and sending it cartwheeling down the beach. A flinty anger ignited in Kagome's eyes and she stood picking up the discarded arrow from the ground.

"Sango, you're like my sister! Stop lying to me! Sesshomaru was with me the entire time! He would have stopped me! BOTH OF YOU, STOP LYING!" Kagome screamed as a wave of pure power rushed away from her body and engulfed the two. They recoiled and shrieked in agony. "I wished the Shikon would disappear, but by doing that, all of its power poured into ME. I…" Inuyasha's raspy, pained cackle cut her off as he rose from the ground. He raised sinister eyes to meet hers.

"That asshole let you massacre an entire village as you flew over." Kagome felt a shifting of power within her chest as the demons within her provided a slideshow of the black balls of power leaving her hands and raining down on the village below. Sesshomaru's strong arm was clamped around her stomach and she saw a glimpse of the black fires and the screaming people pouring from burning houses before there was nothing but trees underneath her. "He lied to you. And you lied to us. You're not a miko. You're a fucking monster. WIND SCAR."

So distracted by the images in her head, she didn't notice until the Wound of the Wind was too close to avoid. Her bow provided no protective pulse of power as the creatures within her gained strength from her anguish, and the attack hit her small body full force. She flew back against the tree behind her; helpless to stop the power tainted with black energy and felt her flesh rip and tear.

Inuyasha collapsed, the wave of pure energy she sent at them exhausting him for reasons he couldn't fathom. The chanting in his head had become a roar, deafening everything. In his peripherals, he saw Sango walk up to Kagome's shock still body. The little miko was bleeding profusely from a massive gash running from collar bone to hip, but still standing. Sango drew her sword and spat at Kagome's feet.

"That was for the villagers." She hissed acerbically. "This is for Miroku." She plunged her sword through the girl's stomach and twisted, earning a scream from Kagome. Sango leaned in closer, blood and the chanting pulsing through her ears. "If you were my sister, you would not have killed the man I loved. You are dead to me. And even better than that…" Sango paused, grinding the sword deeper through her body. "You are dead."

The slayer ripped the bloody sword from her body and Kagome collapsed in a heap. Sango turned and flung the blood off her sword before sheathing it. She returned to Inuyasha's side, the chanting reduced to a dull roar.

"We are finished here." She announced. Inuyasha snorted and turned, walking away from the bleeding girl, but a surge of pure power stopped them dead. They only had time to turn back with wide eyes before the agony of the purity crackling over their skin brought them to their knees.

Kagome rose from the ground gushing blood and emanating power. Her irises disappeared beneath a bright glowing pink light, and she moved towards them, her feet barely touching the ground.

"My body was not mine to control. I may have killed them. Every last one. But I will save you from the poison that made me do it." The pink glow around her body intensified, and the two began screaming in agony. Black energy began seeping from their skin and snaking through the grass to the girl. Blinded by the pain, neither saw the black tendrils wind up her legs and ooze into her skin, each tendril receiving a pulse of power from the bow in her hands. The last tendrils escaped their bodies and returned to the miko's and the glow around her dissipated. Their tortured cries became sobs, and blue eyes observed them sadly.

"I'm so sorry… for all the pain I've caused." Kagome whispered before her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed in a pool of her own blood.

After a moment, Sango recovered from the excruciating pain. She sat up and looked around in wonder. Colors seemed so vivid and the air smelled like lightening and rain. She wondered when things had taken on a gray hue and why she had not noticed. The chanting was gone, and her body felt light and her head clear. Inuyasha was pushing himself off the ground and looking around in wonderment as well. His bright amber eyes met hers and he smiled. She felt warmth rush through her body and she smiled back, and for a second, she forgot they were on a bloody battle field.

"We did it." He said, and she snapped back to reality. They both looked to the bloody body of their once friend for the first time after her power subsided. Without the pulsating mantra in their ears, the gravity of their deed settled heavily on their hearts, and slithers of doubt began creeping into their minds. Instantly, Sango's body was chilled to the bone.

"Inuyasha…why are we alive? She wasn't… well I thought she was trying to kill us. But she said she was saving us." Sango murmured, unable to pull her eyes away from the corpse of the girl.

"Keh. She was fucked up. That's all. She didn't have the strength. You know what she did. We weakened her enough before she really showed her true colors." He said confidently, but his eyes betrayed his deep sadness and confusion. The residual bitterness of Kagome's words and actions clouded his judgment but his resolve was weakening as the pieces continued to not add up. Sango tore her perplexed gaze away from the body and shook her head.

"I don't know…" The slayer said, sliding her sword out with her thumb and wiping off a little of the residual blood.

"Sango, you heard her. She admitted it. She said she killed them all. Every last one." He repeated, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself. The slayer paused for a moment and then nodded, accepting that they were right in slaying the young miko because it was easier to accept than the idea that they had made a mistake.

"Okay. But let's get out of here. It smells like death and rain." She said, shaking off a shiver and rising. Inuyasha nodded crouched before her, allowing her to slide onto his back. He turned and the two of them stared at the body of the girl they once knew for a moment.

"Goodbye, Kagome-chan." Sango whispered, almost too quietly for Inuyasha to hear. Final goodbyes said and hearing her name sent chills through the hanyo, and a deep sense of dread coursed through him. Unable to be there any longer, he turned and bounded off into the trees towards the village, leaving the body, but not the memories of the little miko behind.

* * *

Black. Blackness everywhere. No pain. No heartbreak. No sorrow. No thoughts. Just black. It was comfortable here in oblivion. Kagome floated, drifting on a sea of never-ending darkness. All capacity of time was lost, and location didn't matter. There was nothing.

And nothing was good.

Kagome had no idea how long she floated, but it was long enough for her to ponder whether or not she was dead. The thought scared her for a moment, and then she relaxed into the concept. Death was easy. Living is hard. This was much simpler. All there was to do was float. A flash of silver caught her peripherals and she turned to see what it was that disturbed her darkness.

"Inuyasha?" She called, confused, her voice echoing as if she was in a large chasm. "Why are you here?" The figure turned, but it was golden eyes that looked at her, not amber.

"Sesshomaru…" she whispered, a knot forming in her stomach. The ice in his eyes melted, and he reached out to her with a half-smile on his lips, but before his long, clawed fingers could reach her hand, he dissolved into nothingness. Kagome twisted, trying to find him again, but he was nowhere, and there was only darkness.

She tried to relax and go back to floating, but she couldn't get the knot out of her stomach and his face out of her mind.

"Go away, Sesshomaru. I want to sleep." She told him angrily, but a sudden pang of alarm coursed through her. She looked around, but there was still nothing, and no explanation for her discomfort. The knot in her stomach grew tighter, and an image of Sesshomaru turning and walking away from her entered her mind. An urgent tingling began in the back of her mind, but still, she couldn't determine the source. The tingling became more and more fervent, and she realized the darkness around her was getting lighter.

'Sesshomaru…wait for me.' She thought as the black faded to gray as her powers dragged her to consciousness. Her blue eyes opened and pain washed through her and made her vision go white. Then the aura of the creature sitting next to her hit her like a train. Demonic, unfamiliar and extremely powerful, her miko powers reacted violently against it and tried to rouse her to defend herself.

As the white spots faded from her vision, she saw two intense scarlet eyes gazing down at her.

"No…" She croaked weakly, trying to raise her arms to defend herself, but even slight movement sent blinding pain shooting through her body. She heard a deep chuckle as black spots blossomed in her vision.

"Interesting." She heard a deep baritone voice rumble before the welcoming arms of oblivion claimed her once again.

* * *

**Okay, because I was pissed at my writers block and that last chapter, I don't think I did a sufficient job of thanking you guys.**

**You guys are freaking awesome. Absolutely overwhelmed with the responses from my prompt for things you hate about this story. Thank you x10000 for everyone. I'm really sorry this one took so long to post. I've been insane busy with school and just generally uninspired, and after reviews and PM's like that, there was no way I was posting a shit chapter. You guys make me want to write a million times better to make you all happy. **

**Please keep reading/reviewing/pming/telling me what you think. I appreciate it. **

**LOVE YOU ALL!**

**~Emmy**


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